Require a little help here.

[rurapenthe]

The general rule i use is that if it has 2 (or more) fans, usually centered and advertising "turbo, superfan, ultra-fan, ultra-cooling, super-cooling, twin-frozr, ice-whatever" etc it is NOT reference.

If its MSI and says "Gaming Edition and/or LE" avoid it like the plague.

Finally, the reference tend to be more expensive than the non-reference cards.