MSI announces not one, but two AMD GPUs today. Since Radeon HD 6990 will likely sell a few and then fizzle out when the new nVidia dual GPU comes rolling in like within weeks and stomps it, MSI was smart and beefed up one of the better AMD GPUs to hit the market. MSI is introducing a new R6950 with a special Twin Frozr III Power Edition cooler onboard. The new cooler has new fans, triple over voltage support, and will cool 11C better and be 13.9 dB quieter than a stock-like solution. This all equates to a 21%+ performance boost as you’ll be able to overclock the crap out of it using their latest Afterburner Software.

The R6990 on the other hand is going to use the vanilla cooling solution which on paper looks like it can barely keep up. Not MSI’s fault really but hopefully they give it some Twin Frozr love in a special edition of some sorts. That’s if they are even going to bother seeing as two GTX 580’s nail it to the ground in SLI, so that means a single slot, dual-GPU beast isn’t too far away from the green team. Not to mention, two HD 6970’s (which the HD 6990 is inside) is cheaper and more versatile since you can triple up with a third if you need to down the road. Like the stocker, it will only support five displays and if you unlock the voltage using the special switch, we’ve heard that AMD is voiding warranties if you use it. So lame and I hate products that add no value.

Both cards are probably due out soon but unfortunately no pricing or availability where mentioned in the press releases below. Sorry.

[hide-this-part morelink=”Full Press Release – MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II Power Edition”]

MSI Releases the R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Graphics Card

Propeller Blade Technology & Triple Over Voltage Support: 11?C Cooler, 13.9dB Quieter, 21%+ performance boost!

City of Industry, CA – March 3, 2011 – Internationally renowned graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI proudly launches the R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition today. The all-new graphics card is not only equipped with the latest Twin Frozr III dual fan cooling module, it also incorporates MSI’s exclusive Propeller Blade technology for 20% more airflow than conventional fan blade designs. Under full loads, the GPU core runs 11?C cooler than the reference thermal solution and noise output is up to 13.9 dB lower. The popular PCB architecture from the R6850 Cyclone 1GD5 Power Edition has been retained as well, with Triple Over-Voltage support and a 6+2 phase power delivery system that ensures overclocking potential and stability, achieving up to 21% more performance than the reference HD 6950*! By meeting the needs for increased cooling efficiency, an enhanced power supply, improved overclocking potential, and constant stability— the R6950 Frozr III Power Edition is undoubtedly the best HD6950 graphics card on the market today.

20% More Airflow with Exclusive Propeller Blade Technology
The MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition is equipped with the latest Twin Frozr III dual fan thermal solution. The MSI-exclusive Propeller Blade technology features air channels on the edge of the blades to expand total airflow by up to 20%! The twin 8cm PWM fans, heat pipe technology, large surface-area nickel-plated copper base and high fin density all serve to rapidly draw excess heat away from the graphics card. Under a full load, the R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition GPU runs 11?C cooler than the reference design, and noise emission is reduced by 13.9 dB— validating the superior cooling performance and silent running advantages of the Twin Frozr III.

Since active users may use their graphics cards for a variety of applications, MSI developed the exclusive P/S Switch function for controlling the speed of the fans. The Performance Mode is used to achieve an optimal cooling performance, helping to keep the GPU cool even under high loads. For applications or settings where noiselessness is preferred, the Silent Mode can be utilized as the appropriate mode for gaming or movies, ensuring that fan noise is kept to a minimum while still receiving outstanding cooling performance.

21% More Performance than Reference Board with Triple Overvoltage and 6+2 Phase Power System
The R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics card retains the architecture of its predecessor, the R6850 Cyclone Power Edition. In addition,, Triple Overvoltage is implemented to greatly improve overclockability by allowing users to utilize the popular MSI –Exclusive Afterburner overclocking utility to adjust the GPU-Memory-VDDCI voltage. To achieve maximum performance, the 6+2 Phase Power System design delivers 37% more power than the reference design for stability at high loads. Under overclocking, the R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition offers up to 21% more performance than the reference card!

Handpicked Components for the Best Quality
MSI’s Military Class graphic cards became the favorite with enthusiasts that associate military-grade components with superior quality and stability. To get closer to perfecting board design, MSI has now introduced the next-generation Military Class II Components, including the Tantalum Core Hi-C capacitor that lasts 8 times longer, SFC capacitors that deliver 30% more power, and Solid Cap capacitors that get up to 10 years of service life. All combined, together they ensure superior graphics card quality and stability.

¹Performance testing was performed using 3DMark 11 Extreme Mode. Actual performance will vary depending on the test platform.

About MSI MSI was founded in 1986 and is one of the world-class IT product leading brands. Based on the operating principle “Insist on the Best”, MSI has shown a strong R & D capabilities and high production technology in motherboard and graphics card products. Adopting a diversified management and business strategy, MSI has also penetrate into the Notebook, All-in-One PC and Car Entertainment product fields. At an international brand development strategy, MSI has launched a new corporate identity system (CIS), as well as corporate slogan “Insist on the Best”. It also represents a new era in MSI’s brand development. With high productivity, high technology, and high quality R & D niche, MSI is expected to become one of the top 10 notebook and system brands in the world in 2010. Apart from the market operation, MSI fulfills more efforts in our corporate citizenship, taking into account environmental protection and social feedback. In March this year, MSI has been chosen simultaneously as one of “2009 Top 50 Corporate Citizens” and “2009 Top CSR Excellent Enterprises” from CommonWealth Magazine and Global Views Magazine in Taiwan. In the future, MSI will continue to commit and implement corporate social responsibility in company governance. Fulfilling its responsibilities as world citizen, MSI will do more specific actions and contribution to public awareness to achieve “Beautiful Life, Green Homeland”, our goal and commitment to stakeholders. To learn more about MSI, please visit: us.msi.com.

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[hide-this-part morelink=”Full Press Release – MSI R6990 Vanilla”]

MSI Announces the World’s Most Powerful Graphics Card: Radeon R6990-4PD4GD5

Revolutionary dual-core, 4GB GDDR5 design supports up to display outputs on a single card with AMD Eyefinity technology

City of Industry, CA – March 8, 2011 – Internationally renowned graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI is popular with enthusiasts and professional consumers via great graphics performance and our expertise in research and design. After succesfully launching its all-new R6900/R6800 series of graphics cards, MSI today announces its top model AMD Radeon R6990-4PD4GD5 graphics card, equipped with two AMD Radeon HD6900-series graphics processors and the world’s first desktop card with 4GB GDDR5 memory. This places the R6990-4PD4GD5 as the highest performance graphics card in existance today! The R6990-4PD4GD5 supports AMD’s exclusive Eyefinity multi-display technology, with 4 mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs on it that offers up to a maximum 5 display outputs from a single graphics card. In addition, R6990-4PD4GD5 also supports the legendary graphics card overclocking utility – MSI’s Afterburner. Enthusiasts can adjust clock speeds of GPU and memory, and monitor information like voltage, temperature and usage of memory via Afterburner. Also, power users can measure the stability of overclocked graphic card with the MSI graphics card testing utility Kombustor V2.0. R6990-4PD4GD5 supports the latest DirectX11, OpenGL 4.1 graphical standards, features found on the most demanding performance applications and games.

Number One Performance with Revolutionary 4GB Memory
An advanced 40nm graphics architecture design on the dual-GPU R6990-4PD4GD5 allows superior visual computing power with improved process efficiency, maximizing performance when compared to a single core graphics card. The revolutionary 4GB GDDR5 memory on R6990-4PD4GD5 raises not only the smoothness of high resolution gaming, but also efficiency of multi-display image processing. R6990-4PD4GD5 has powerful specification that exceed the demand hardcore gamers and power users, achieving No. 1 performance on the planet.

AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology
MSI’s R6990-4PD4GD5 supports AMD exclusive Eyefinity multi-display technology, with 4 mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs that offer a maximum 5 display outputs from a single graphics card. Each output supports display resolution up to 2560×1600, greatly raising the visual real estate available to professional users and game players. Also, DisplayPort 1.2 enables the transmission of Stereoscopic 3D and 7.1 channel sound in the lossless TrueHD and DTS-HD sound formats for the ultimate in audio-visual experience. MSI’s R6990-4PD4GD5 graphics card carries the latest DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 graphical standards, allowing users to take advantage for the ultimate gaming experience.

MSI Afterburner overclock utility supported w/ all-new Predator video capture
MSI is entrenched in the hearts of power users after recently releasing the most complete utility for graphics card monitoring and overclocking. The newest Afterburner 2.1.0 release not only supports adjustment of GPU/memory/PLL voltages, advanced fan-speed control, information monitoring, and 5 customized profile setting are also featured. Afterburner 2.1 also introduces the new Predator in-game video capture function, allowing exciting gaming moments to be recorded . Gamers can bask in their glory and share them with the world using online video hosting sites. The popular graphics card testing utility Kombustor V2.0 provides graphics card stability test, and the new KMark mode measures a graphic card’s true performance using several different display effects.

All-Solid Caps for High Stability and Performance
The MSI R6990-4PD4GD5 graphics cards implements an all-solid capacitor design. Under high load environments over an extended period of time, the aluminum core can still maintain extremely high stability, reducing the uncertainty due to system instability or hardware component failure. This ensures the optimal user experience under mission-critical performance scenarios!

About MSI MSI was founded in 1986 and is one of the world-class IT product leading brands. Based on the operating principle “Insist on the Best”, MSI has shown a strong R & D capabilities and high production technology in motherboard and graphics card products. Adopting a diversified management and business strategy, MSI has also penetrate into the Notebook, All-in-One PC and Car Entertainment product fields. At an international brand development strategy, MSI has launched a new corporate identity system (CIS), as well as corporate slogan “Insist on the Best”. It also represents a new era in MSI’s brand development. With high productivity, high technology, and high quality R & D niche, MSI is expected to become one of the top 10 notebook and system brands in the world in 2010. Apart from the market operation, MSI fulfills more efforts in our corporate citizenship, taking into account environmental protection and social feedback. In March this year, MSI has been chosen simultaneously as one of “2009 Top 50 Corporate Citizens” and “2009 Top CSR Excellent Enterprises” from CommonWealth Magazine and Global Views Magazine in Taiwan. In the future, MSI will continue to commit and implement corporate social responsibility in company governance. Fulfilling its responsibilities as world citizen, MSI will do more specific actions and contribution to public awareness to achieve “Beautiful Life, Green Homeland”, our goal and commitment to stakeholders. To learn more about MSI, please visit: us.msi.com.

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