KFA2 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti HOF Review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

The new HOF is an innovative and very creative product, Galax/KFA2 truly outdid themselves this round and the little 'crown' they use as logo is well-deserved. The performance is fantastic, The HOF however has a slightly lower power limiter and memory clock compared to say the competitions lightning, and that does make it a tiny little bit less aggressive. That difference is tweaked out in like 2 seconds though + all cards overclock roughly the same so you need to wonder if that is relevant at all. We love the new LCD screen that displays information at the top of the card. Also the RGB LED system is very nice, (hey if you hate RGB just turn it off), what I like are extra segments that light up like the display connectors and power connectors. Overall that brings in that little extra x-factor feel. It is a lot of white though, I'll comment on that in the aesthetics chapter though. The facts are simple though, it is big and bulky, but that does cool mighty fine! We have not seen this card pass 67 Degrees under any load circumstance. And that means with long duration usage, it isn't throttling down either.  Compared to a reference card overall you are looking at an up-to 8% on average extra in performance and 14% when tweaked. And that means the product as tested today passes Titan X performance levels, quite easily.

 
 

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 Aesthetics

The GTX 1080 Ti HOF truly a proper nice looking card. The design overall will not be everybody's cup of tea though, likely you'll either hate or love that. Personally I like it, however I do feel that GALAX/KFA2 made that card in the end way too white, even the fans. This card needs a dark element, even black fans would have made this card look totally different. See it is very difficult to house this card (aesthetically) in a modern PC as 99% of the motherboards have a black PCB as base. The implementation of the LCD screen is done right, located at the top, visible and visually readable. Next to that, to display registers like temperature and clock frequency, you will need the proprietary Galax software active to be able to do that. It's the same with the RGB LEDs, as Galax did this really nicely, with the power and display connectors lighting up as well. It brings a very nice niche feel towards this product + you can configure it at any color of your liking, but granted, White here looks best. While I am skeptical about back-plates, I have to state that Galax did it right. They can look good and protect your PCB and components from damage and, well, they can look nice as they can have a certain aesthetic appeal .So in the end, on looks you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality. All that combined with a nicely designed 16 phase GPU setup on a white PCB, well what's not to like, eh?

Cooling & Noise Levels

The reference design (Founders Edition) of the GTX 1080 Ti is set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C and quite easily hit 84 Degrees C under load/stress. As such, the reference card, once that GPU gets warmer, will clock down on voltage and that dynamic turbo clock to try and keep the card at that temperature threshold. That's throttling and it's part of the design and falls within advertised turbo frequencies. The GTX 1080 Ti HOF runs at around the 65~67 Degrees C marker, and with the temperature threshold set at 80 Degrees C it has no need to throttle whatsoever. That means on long multi-hour gaming streaks, your card will still perform 100% at that 1900~1950 MHz marker.

Please do note that you will need proper ventilation inside your chassis to achieve that number as the card oozes out warm air at the top side and cooler vents. Overall though the cooling design shaves off over 10 to 15 Degrees C over reference. As mentioned expect (low) sound pressure values in the 38~39 dBA range at max under load and warm circumstances. We merely heard a minuscule amount of coil noises/whine at high FPS, you not hear it inside a closed chassis. Weirdly enough we seem to hear it with all 1080 Ti cards we have tested to date. You have been able to check the thermal images, no comments here either, this is a seriously properly cooled card. 

Power Consumption

The GP102-350-A1 Pascal GPU is rated as having a 250 Watt TDP. This GTX 1080 Ti HOF sits at almost 300 Watts depending on your game title and GPU load. This higher wattage has everything to do with the factory tweak. At this performance level you are looking at 450~500 Watts for our PC in total, that is still okay. We think a 600~650 Watt PSU would be sufficient and, if you go with 2-way SLI, an 800~900 Watt power supply is recommended. Remember, when purchasing a PSU aim to double up in Wattage as your PSU is most efficient when it is under 50% load. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and/or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve. People often underestimate it, but if you tweak all three aforementioned variables, you can easily add 200 Watts to your peak power consumption budget.

Gaming Performance

From 1080P to Ultra HD the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti shows some serious numbers. But here's a paradox - the more difficult things get - the better the product will perform. E.g. Ultra HD is its true domain. Much like fine wine that ages well, that means this GeForce GTX 1080 Ti will last you a long time with future, more GPU intensive games. This much performance and 11 GB of GDDR5X graphics memory helps you out in Ultra HD, DSR, VR and hefty complex anti-aliasing modes. That, and of course the latest gaming titles. I consider this to be a very viable single GPU solution that allows you to game properly in Ultra HD with some very nice eye candy enabled with a single GPU. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. Performance wise, really there's not one game that won't run seriously well at the very best image quality settings. Gaming you must do with a nice Ultra HD monitor of course, or at least a 2560x1440 screen. Now, we can discuss the advantages of that 11 GB frame-buffer, but hey, you can draw your own conclusions there as performance isn't limited. And with 11 GB of it, you won't run out of graphics memory for years to come, right? So in that respect the card is rather future proof.

Overclocking

This card has a nice factory tweak applied for you already. It is roughly your maximum with maybe ~80 MHz room left on that GPU base clock frequency. As such, at default this card hovers in that familiar ~1,950 MHz range and tweaked at ~2,050 MHz. So there is no real need to overclock per se as hey, this tweak is covered by your warranty as well. If you do want to tweak, you'll get a bit more out of the base clock and roughly 1.2 GHz on the memory. You can also allow the board power limiter to go up towards 116%. All these factors combined (power limiter/GPU clock/MEM clock) offer a notch more performance. Especially the memory tweak helps as the GP102 GPUs is a bit memory deprived. 


Concluding

This card is a classic, the massive cooling will make sure that under heavy stress the GPU won't go over 67 Degrees C while keeping the VRM area and DDR5X areas in line and cooled as well. I mean, we are talking about a GP102 GPU here and that thing is big! Even up-to 60 Degrees C the HOF remains totally passive and thus produces no noise.  Once we took off the cooler and cooling plates I must admit I was impressed, the build quality and component usage just oozes quality. Granted, it's a big and heavy dude alright. The size and weight you do need to factor in though, some dislike three slot designs and that weight, well you need to secure the card properly as that's a lot of pressure on any PCI Express slot. Your stress gaming temperature will sit at a nice low  ~67 Degrees C threshold, which is excellent considering what GPU lies under the hood! Tweaking performance is in line with any other GTX 1080 Ti though, and that means it remains limited to whatever Nvidia dictates - and that is that 2050 MHZ Boost domain. Please do keep in mind that it is a 3-slot product that weighs 1.7 Kg, please do use that included mounting bracket if you do not have these new metal reinforced PCI-Express slots. Right, you have seen the thermal images, these show good proper results as the card throughout all locations remains at relatively proper temps. If you can pick it up for the right price then we can wholeheartedly recommend it. The heart of this beast is a GP102 GPU and it is one of the fastest graphics cards your money can get you as hey, this dawg is up-to 40% faster than the GTX 1080 and can be up-to twice as fast as one GTX 1070.

In closing, we feel the KFA2 / Galax GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Hall of Fame is a truly lovely enthusiast class product. It brings in some new innovation with the new informative LCD screen and a truly impressive cooling solution. Within the 1080 Ti ranks, it would rank high up there. Perhaps it could have received a little more leash on it's power limiter and memory clocks, but as stated, that is tweaked out in just seconds. The HOF series remains truly impressive and oozes quality. I would like to see a little less white on the HOF though, this was a little much and just black fans would have made it look like a totally different product already (but taste is a subjective thing). That is as far as my nagging can go as otherwise this product will get two big thumbs up.

 - H

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