GALAX GEFORCE GTX 1080 TI HOF
GALAX’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti HOF card stands out as one of the more extravagant offerings here. Everything from its box to the card screams for attention, and GALAX even opted to include a pair of presumably anti-static gloves too.
This is a really chunky and long card, measuring 57mm tall and featuring three 90mm semi-passive fans. You’ll need no less than three PCIe slots to install, and sufficient clearance lengthwise.
The mostly white plastic shroud also makes for quite a striking look (even the PCB is white), and this is one GPU that should de nitely be paired with a matching board or other components.
Other notable features include a backlit LCD display on the card’s side, where you can display things like the HOF logo or clock speeds and voltages. In addition, you can make it display custom text, although it can look fairly boring given the low resolution monochrome panel.
When it comes to cooling, there’s unfortunately no dedicated VRM heatsink despite the card coming with three 8-pin power connectors. Instead, GALAX has gone with a mounting frame that sits between the heatsink and the PCB, and this helps to provide structural reinforcement and a degree of passive cooling.
A copper plate connects with the GPU and channels heat away to the ve heat pipes, while an additional circumference of copper around the main base plate helps cool the GDDR5X memory chips. The aluminum backplate also provides further passive cooling, and there are thermal pads that make contact with some of the PCB components.
GALAX also lists the card as having an impressive 16+3-phase power design, but it really consists of just eight true phases which are doubled to give rise to 16.
And unlike most of the other cards, the GALAX model comes with just a single set of base and boost clocks, and there’s no OC Mode that you can switch to for a quick performance boost. That said, the Xtreme Tuner Plus utility does come with a 1-click OC function should you really want those extra frames right away.