GALAX GeForce GTX 980 SOC review (Page 27)

GALAX GeForce GTX 980 SOC review

Graphics cards 1049 Page 27 of 27 Published 2014-10-30 08:11 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

The move to merge two separate brands together will take some time from a consumer point of view to get used to. But going from Galaxy to GALAX should not be that hard to remember I guess, heh. For KFA2 going to the brand GALAX however is a little different. Well, that said the product as tested today is the kind of quality that we are used to from the two aforementioned yet not at all different parties. The GALAX Geforce GTX 980 SOC is a serious frickin' gaming beast that will happily sink its teeth into your PC. From mucho viewpoints it is a good looking product in terms of aesthetics, cooling, heat levels, backplate and that massive factory overclock of course. GALAX offers the product based on a nice custom PCB that is covered by that funky cooler. If you really like to rock the funky beats then yeah, the SOC raises the bar and tweaks the card just above 1.2 GHz at default and 1.3 GHz at the boost frequency. The boost frequency is relative as in reality the card at default was performing in the 1.35 GHz range, very impressive. And that shows in performance. The raw game rendering performance is pretty brutal. Then there is still plenty of margin left for a nice additional overclock on top of the default clocks. Design wise, as stated, we really like the look, nice to see is a proper included backplate BTW. You can discuss the functionality of it but it is a feature that people truly like these days.

Maxwell GM 204 GPU experience overall

Both the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 leave a very solid impression. One offers good, the other exceptional performance within its range. It’s not heaps faster than the previous 780 series though. So I do not expect Geforce 780 range product owners to upgrade anytime soon. However, if you are in say the GeForce GTX 680 range, then this might be a very nice time to jump on-board with a new card. It is interesting to see that 10 years ago performance per generation nearly doubled. With current release schedules we continuously see 20 to 30% performance increases across the board over the last-gen products. That is still respectable as you need to keep in mind that the GM204 is still on 28nm much like Kepler. Injecting more transistors onto a GPU creates yield issues, heat and high power consumption. The GK110 (GTX Titan / Black), whilst being a true beast of a GPU, is testimony to that. With that in mind Nvidia tried to create a product series that is affordable and plays the most high-end and latest games perfectly fine at an acceptable price level. When you look at it from that point of view the Maxwell release is a successful one. This is probably the maximum that Nvidia should and can do on 28nm in terms of improved performance and power consumption versus price.

Thermals

The reference design of the GTX 970 and 980 are the very same cooling wise. The reference products are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down and lower its voltage. All board partners including GALAX offer customized SKUs, much like the SOC edition we test today. Customizing means improving on that reference design, you can expect the temperature to hover in the 70~75 Degrees C range with hefty games. However, this is factory overclocked cooling performance for you. Remember, this product is factory tweaked pretty darn high at default for you. What people will miss however is that there is no zero dBA fan option. Pretty much all partners have their fans disabled up-to roughly 65 Degrees C, that would have been nice to see on the SOC as well. That's just a minor remark though. Seen from the other side, you can't hear the fans in IDLE and a little airflow for the components will never hurt either. The cooler looks sturdy with its threesome of fans, aesthetically it is a product that is easy on the eyes and will fit any dark and preferably red themed gaming PC quite well.

Cooling versus noise levels

The cooler in IDLE is quiet, however during gaming you will hear some airflow. This is a normal noise level, nothing irritating. Sound pressure values are in the 41 dBA range under load and warmer circumstances. That's measured 75 CM away from the PC. So you can hear the card while using it heavily, but it remains at a normal noise level. For those that require sheer silence, you will need to be on the lookout for another product. A topic of discussion with recent graphics cards is coil noise, we unfortunately have to report that the GALAX GTX 980 SOC does produce some coil noise that can be heard, especially in high GPU load high framerate gaming.

Performance

A nice advantage for the new cards is that they now come standard with 4 GB of DDR5 graphics memory, this means gaming sweetness at even the highest resolutions. All games play perfectly at up-to WHQD at 2560x1440, The GeForce GTX 980 is a nice card that certainly offers a nice chunk of performance in those high resolutions, albeit it will fall short here and there if you are at Ultra HD. Overall you can play all the modern and latest games with nice AA levels and excellent image quality, the PC gaming way. GeForce GTX 980 I would recommend with Ultra HD if you can tick off AA, however with upcoming MFAA (pending a driver release) you'll be able to play games quite well with this MSAA equivalent quality AA feature as well. It is a perfect card for gaming up-to 2560x1440.

Tweaking

Without extra voltage tweaking you can expect a 1350~1400 MHz range for the Turbo clock frequency. Depending on how much your board will take and allow, with voltage tweaking you’ll pass the 1450 MHz mark. Roughly 1500 MHz on our end works with air-cooling, but it might depend per production batch and also variables like your PC stability, power supply and so on. We ended up at a stable 1.5 GHz, which is a crazy clock frequency. Remember though, our overclock is not a guarantee for your results and if you reverse that, your tweaking results could also be better than ours. The memory is clocked standard at 7.0 GHz, you'll fairly easily achieve 7.5 GHz and we even reached close to 8.0 GHz stable. My advice is to keep your effective memory data-rate just under 8 GHz for a little more stability, roughly 7900 MHz seems to be a sweet-spot for most cards we have tested. Overall you’ll see a nice gain in extra gaming performance.

Final Words

Both the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 are in high-demand and there is limited availability on the market at the moment of writing. As such it is surprising to see this many customized AIB SKUs out there. Once again we have tested a GTX 980 that is impressive in several ways. I mean the product just looks killah. GALAX offers a product with very high factory clock frequencies, I mean the card has a baseclock at 1228 MHz with a Boost allowance to 1329 MHz. During gaming the card will even pass this boost frequency as we have seen it hovering in-between 1350 and 1400 MHz all by itself. That shows in performance. Surprising to see is that GALAX left the memory clock frequency at default. 7.2 Gbps would have been nice. But hey, press a button or two, tweak a little and you are there. Overall, overclocking wise we even pushed the card over 1.50 GHz on the boost frequency, definitely worthy of being called a grand overclock still. Now, I am not recommending this as a long term tweak really, honestly if you like lifespan... 1400~1450 MHz should be your range with as little added Voltage on the GPU as needed. Right, time to wrap things up. The GALAX GeForce GTX 980 SOC is a lovely choice, but in the GTX 980 space you'll have a-plenty to choose from when shopping for a 980. The card is a notch more noisy opposed to the competition and our sample did have a bit of coil whine, these are the two negatives I simply have to point out.

The model as tested today hovers at roughly 550 EURO at the moment of writing. Overall the card is great in design and a nice little monster in the Full HD and WHQD PC gaming space anno 2014. The GALAX GeForce GTX 980 SOC is a great alternative to put high on your short-list, a product that comes recommended by Guru3D.com

Related articles

Recommended Downloads

Share this content

Twitter Facebook Reddit WhatsApp Email Print

SanDisk Ultra II 240 GB SSD review

Guru3D Rig of the Month - October 2014