Page 12 - Conclusion

The Verdict

While the generic 8800 GT 512MB graphics card already is an inspiration for the money you pay for it, the Galaxy edition seems to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Not only do we see an improved PCB, we see custom cooling, a 3-phase power circuit, heaps of overclocking head-room, HDMI connector... seriously if this card was a women, I could fall in love with it.

Now let's stick to a paradox and tell you what happened to me ... imagine meeting the perfect women, nice sexy, perfect rounding, sporty, fast .. hmm and then she's smiles and bam .. you are staring at ugly brown teeth. At that very lapse in time, the moment is gone and that is spot on my experience with this Galaxy card. It is nearly perfect in all ways ... until you power it on. The noise from the cooler is making the product repelling. I just do not understand how Galaxy can make such a nice product and then completely mess it up with the cooler noise level.

So I asked Galaxy this question and this is the response we got:

I know about the fan. The thing is those samples were rushed a bit and the fans can are not working good. One of the cards I have is extra loud and the second one is silent. We think it is a malfunction made while assembling the card. We know about that and it is being redone right now.

With that in mind I continued asking questions until things got cleared up a tad better. The product with the cooler as tested today is scrapped. Galaxy is replacing the cooler with a new cooler. So the cooler as tested today is RIP and is to be replaced by two 100% identical cards yet with new coolers, one looking very close to what we tested today though:

In the photo above you can see the final models. To your left a model with a cooler-master heatpipe cooler, to the right the new version of what we tested today. This makes me scratch behind my ears a little as we do not know what impact the new CM cooler or updated cooler will have on thermals and thus overclocking, making my conclusion really difficult.

So it's like this, if this product will have it's cooling properly altered to an acceptable RPM/Noise level with the new coolers then it is by far the best 8800 GT we have had in our labs. You get really good performance for an okay price, you get to have HDMI, 6-phase power, custom cooling, nice blue PCB and overclocking potential. All these factors combined make this a truly awesome but most of all unique product. So while I'm not sure how well or how bad the new cooler will perform, you'll still have one heck of a card.

You get to play with roughly close 8800 GTS 512MB performance at default. If you overclock it a little further you'll push it to GTX performance, and that does not suck my kind Sir. Once that cooler issue is straightened out, you are bound to have a lot of fun and it'll offer you a really nice gaming experience up-to 1600x1200 with all eye-candy enabled, that's a Guru3D guarantee.

I want to give this card our "Best Hardware Award", which we rarely give away. Yet with the cooler as we have tested it, I just can't in good conscience give this product what it really deserves. For that I need to see & test the final cooler on this actual graphics card.

Once I can give the product the thumbs up and the fan noise issue indeed is solved while maintaining good thermals I'd be delighted to grant this product our award. This is an original product in every possible way. Not the standard reference boards with the reference cooler where product A to Z from all manufacturers are all the same. This is about product differentiation, being unique and creating a unique product. I have so much respect for a small company doing such innovative stuff.

Company: Galaxy
Price: 249 USD/EUR
Info: galaxytech.com