The MSI Radeon HD 5770 HAWK

So what is the HAWK series all about then ? MSI as you know has the high-end series Lightning graphics cards. For the more mainstream products they however are going to introduce the HAWK series. It boils down to a high quality custom build graphics card with the best components, cooling and good overclockability.

The first HAWK series product will be ATI Radeon 5770 based as we just explained above, which is a lovely product for money. The card will come with the 'Military class' component selection that MSI markets so well and also you'll spot a custom PCB and the Twin Frozr thermal design cooling. This card will also have voltage checkpoints so you can check GPU and memory voltages with the help of a multi-meter.

So from ground up, this graphics card has little to do with ATI other than the fact that a 5770 chip is slapped on it. It's their best of the best.

Several key features translate themselves into the following design changes. First off, and I know you guys get a little nauseated when you hear the phrase 'Military Class components', but hear me out. Next to the custom PCB, MSI not only used the very best components on this graphics cards. And sure that's a lot of marketing but MSI follows US Department of Defense MIL-PRF-39003L guidelines in terms of build quality and heat levels, that's the reason behind the 'Military class' components. Such components are quality capacitors, Hi-C (Tantalum core) caps and Solid Core chokes.  We all know it by now but using such components will reduce heat levels, increases life-span but also help in two other ways, better overclocking and stability.

Power design then, the Radeon HD 5770 HAWK comes with a custom PCB and a 7+1 phase PWM design, you get 7 phases on the GPU. To sompare that little -- that's 4 for the reference model. And then one phase on the memory.

V-check points -- Always funny to see are little additional extra's for real enthusiasts, you'll notice two jumper like positions on the graphics card (we'll show you in our photo-shoot) on which you can plug a cable (delivered with the card), pop your multimeter in there and now you can monitor voltages fired off at the GPU and there's a checkpoint for the memory as well.

Cooling  -- the MSI 5770 HAWK comes with the all new Twin Frozr II cooling solution. A heatpipe based system that has dual PWM fans blowing over three heat pipes.The cooling solution also extends further, underneath the heatpipe cooler you'll notice a Memory/MOSFET heatsink as well. MSI claims to have a 13 degrees C cooler temperature over the reference design.

What about clock frequencies ? ATI actually does not allow it, but the basic design the card comes a little pre-overclocked as well. The core clock frequency is set at 875 MHz and the 1024MB memory at 4800 MHz (gDDR5)

Can we overclock ourselves ? Heck yea ... the card comes with the dazzling Afterburner software allow a little voltage tweaking to help you overclock even further. We'll discuss that in our overclock session though but Afterburner will allow you to increase voltage to 1.30v helping you out with a much higher overclock.

Hilbert dude -- the dough ? The HAWK will obviously priced a little higher and comes with a suggested retail price of 195 USD / 165 EUR which we feel is a fair price as really, a graphics cards design will not get much better than what MSI offers here today. But allow us to demonstrate that.

The HAWK edition graphics cards have voltage checkpoints so you can check GPU and memory voltages with the help of a multi-meter.