MSI GTX 680 Lightning 2GB Graphics Card Review

Noise is generally the bain of most consumers lives and in the hope of finding the quietest operation, we feel it’s necessary to show you the audio level of components. We use the same components throughout this test and use a sound level meter to record the audio level of the system with a passive graphics card installed. Once we have the level recorded with the passive card, we continue to change the graphics card for the one that we are testing. Due to us having the audio level recorded before installation, it gives us a guide to work with and shows that anything over our initial level is an audio gain.

With this card utilising the Twin Frozr IV cooler, this is where things start to get interesting. Though the numbers for a first glance look high, they are still extremely low compared to other high end cards, like the HD 7970 that we also tested.

We also see the noise levels only rise marginally from idle to load, whereas other cards see increases by well over 20 dBA.