Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 GC version! – Pre-Overclocked, Innovative HSF Design

Author

Oik Yusuf Araya

Reading time:

Graphics Card

August 25, 2010

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Conclusions

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 is one of the most interesting GPU nowadays because it offers relatively high performance for its price (US$ 349). However, like its bigger brother the GeForce GTX 480, the GTX 470 is also burdened by temperature problems. The reference HSF cannot provide sufficient cooling, as it seems to be. A good few months after its launch, manufacturers began shipping custom-cooled GTX 470 graphics card.

Galaxy Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 GC version! is one such card, and, aside from the HSF, the PCB layout is custom-made as well. Galaxy’s innovative “Advanced Flip Fan Design” makes it easy to clean up the cooling fan and a portion of the heatsink that sits right below it. It also provides adequate cooling for the graphics card.

As for the performance, just like what you would expect from a GeForce GTX 470-based card, Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 GC version! ran the games in our benchmarks flawlessly, with a small exception for Metro 2033 where it struggled to reach the 30 FPS mark. In other titles, the frame rates were high enough to allow for fluid actions, to say the least. Running the games at full-HD resolution of 1920×1080 was not a problem either. A few bits of added megahertz from the factory overclock contribute to some extra performance, though it still cannot match the GTX 480 when it comes to raw power.

The mini-HDMI cable is a noteworthy addition to the sales package. Thanks to this bonus, users of this graphics card will not need to buy a separate cable to hook up an HDMI display to their systems. While that may sound insignificant, it sure saves some amount of money and time.

Pros

Overclocked, right out-of-the-box
Non-reference, Advanced Flip Fan Design
mini-HDMI to HDMI cable bonus
High performance

Cons

Not too much of an overclock applied to the core and shader