Instead of making lofty claims
about how the HOF is somehow
magically superior under all
contexts to everything else on the
market, I do appreciate that that
even in naming it is true to what
its purpose is. This is a card for
LN2 overclocking. It doesn’t even
ship with an air cooler but a GPU
block designed by BitsPower. It’s a
focused product that isn’t confused
about what it’s trying to be. How
successful it is at this, will come
down to the actual overclocker
and as stated before. We only have
two such cards on the market so
it’s literally a two horse race at
which point any one card can reign
supreme. What is true though is
that whichever of the cards you are
partial too, they stand head and
shoulders above all other offerings
of which there are plenty.
Easy enough to have a vendor
make a handful of samples of
a card and ship them out to
overclockers they have close
relationships with, but it’s another
thing to have and actual card which
anybody can buy that delivers the
goods consistently. This is what
we have here with the GALAX HOF.
True to the name, the GPU has
achieved Hall Of Fame results and
will likely continue to do so.
In the second editorial or 2nd
part, in addition to delivering more
refined results and pushing the card
to its absolute limits I’ll look at the
more regular aspects of the card
as well including its liquid cooled
performance, aesthetic value and
all kinds of other things I didn’t
discuss this time. However that is
for another issue, right now with
my initial impressions, I’m intrigued
and impressed by what GALAX has
managed to do. The attempt itself
at making something that other
vendors are not seriously attempting
is remarkable. The selling price is
quite high at a cool $999 (before
shipping and whatever taxes you may
have to pay relevant to where you
are), but that’s literally the price of
the other competing card. You can
either spend $1000 on a sure thing
or try your luck with the cheaper
cards in the hopes that an LN2
BIOS and some mods will get you to
where you need to be. I’d say that’s
a risky proposition and one that has
a high chance of failure. As such, I’d
strongly advise you to take a look at
the GALAX HOF OC Lab Edition Card
as it really is a remarkable card in
many ways.
Issue 42 | 2017 The OverClocker 31