as well for the TU102 GPU.
Again, it could have gone
catastrophically wrong, but in the end
it all worked remarkably well thanks
to the specially designed container
courtesy of the engineering and
machining capabilities of Bitspower.
It is said there were at least three
revisions of this container, but at
the end it was made just right and
dozens of these were eventually
manufactured for use at the 10th GOC
competition a couple of months later.
Dubbed the HOF Actual-F LN2
container, this container has proved to
be more than up to the task bringing
great control while handling massive
amounts of heat exceptionally well.
With plenty of mass, the container
makes gradual temperature increases
feasible without sacrificing control.
Helpful as precision control of LN2 isn’t
as natural to everyone but remains
necessary for high clock frequencies
and even more critical at the very edge
of stability and clock frequencies.
Concerning memory, GALAX
would of course be offering their HOF
DRAM and as expected it delivered
immensely. For the overclockers
mainly attacking the 2D benchmarks,
in Duck and Fred Yama (Super PI
32M) this memoy were indispensable,
capable of achieving the 4133MHz CL12
setting as expected of all extreme
overclocking DRAM. Coincidently,
on one of the days, GALAX technical
personal were testing 5GHz DRAM
on a couple of ROG motherboards
and from the little feedback they
were willing to share. It looks as if
the HOF DDR4 5000 works more
than well on the boards in question
(Maximus X Apex, XI Gene and
another MSI board I believe).
Either way, should GALAX release
some noteworthy memory modules
in 2019, do not be surprised as they
have been tuning these DRAM kits as
far back as the September of 2018.
From the outside looking in, building
an OC lab and of course producing
overclocking ready hardware seems
trivial. Simply assemble the best
components within reason, slap
on a great cooler and off you go.
Understandably, from this position it
can seem as if it’s all marketing speak
pinned on a hope and a prayer - yet
little could be farther from the truth
as it’s a lot more involved, needing
hundreds of man hours, resources and
multiple attempts to get right while
complying with NVIDIA’s specifications.
The unfortunate part here being
that you could be an avid supporter
of all GALAX components, yet miss
out entirely on what the OC Lab has
brought to those very components.
For one to appreciate this, it is
necessary to take part in extreme
overclocking, as it’s here where the
engineering efforts are most vivid.
While making overclocking capable
hardware doesn’t necessarily
need these resources (Lab, staff,
consistent supply of LN2, hardware
etc.), but the edge it has given GALAX
and specifically the HOF parts is
undeniable. It’s perhaps in recognition
or anticipation of this that the powers
within GALAX undertook this OC Lab
project. Many of the things that make
their HOF GPUs a breeze to overclock
and yet so capable are due in some
part to what this live environment
allows. It is here where extreme
overclockers can test hardware
under many varied conditions and
with a combination of hardware,
that would otherwise fall entirely
to GALAX to test. As such, even if
it were only for this single reason,
the OC Lab is a substantial and
meaningful part of all HOF Hardware.
In terms of legacy, it should
come as a surprised to some that
GALAX overclocking cards are ten
years old going on 11. If you weren’t
aware, the first card focused on
overclocking which found its way to
market wasn’t a high-end GPU, but a
GeForce GTX 460. For a decade since,
GALAX has continuously refined its
engineering and manufacturing of
graphics card, eventually introducing
the HOF series as well. Constantly
evolving the models, despite the
increase in difficultly imposed by
Issue 46 | 2019 The OverClocker 11