Warning: GTX275 may need to be strapped down to avoid takeoff.
In the animal kingdom, bigger is almost certainly going to mean better - huge teeth and muscular bulk are pretty good traits to have. When you apply the same to graphics cards, does it really increase performance, or are we simply tacking on gargantuan cooling solutions that aren't needed? Well, the answer is more or less obvious.
The Galaxy GTX275 is based around NVIDIA's GT200 core, running at a slightly enhanced 650MHz on the core (a paltry 17MHz increase) and 1200MHz for the 896MB of GDDR3 (up from 1134MHz). It's got a 448-bit memory bus to connect the core to the memory, giving a relatively wide pipeline to channel memory down, with plenty of space available to fit large game textures.
The GT200 chip used in this is the same as what you'd find in a GTX295 - literally a single core. It has the same stream processors as a GTX280/5, but the memory interface of a GTX260, giving it better performance without overtaking the top-end. It's still based on 55nm tech.
Physically the card is impressively sized - coming in as a triple-slot insane-length cooler this is not a small card in any way. Stretching about 10.5 inches from end-to-end this rivals the length we've seen from 8800GTX Ultra cards a couple of years back. Most of the bulk is taken up by the cooler - a huge heatsink provided by Arctic Cooling. This is their Accelero XTREME, and with a name like that it's got to be able to perform well to get our approval.
Consisting of a large base, the heatsink contacts the core and immediately raises outwards into a series of aluminium fins, relying on normal convection to move heat around. A series of five heatpipes run the entire length of the card; these dip down in the centre to meet with the base and carry heat to the further two aluminium heatsinks at either end. Each component on the PCB has a heatsink too, and all this adds up to a very significant amount of surface area for the heat to be dissipated.
On top of all the fins lie three identical 92mm fans, that make a combined noise of 53.6dBA no matter what load the card is under - this is one seriously quiet card, and we couldn't discern it from the rest of the test-rig! The fans are powered by the PCB itself, but also have an extra three-pin fan cable that seems almost useless (check the gallery link in the specs box for more). Idle temps were a chilly 39 degrees Celsius, while load was only 54 degrees, which is great performance for any cooler.
Not only does it cool well, but it gives a huge amount of overclocking potential too. We hit a core speed of 778MHz completely stable - a whopping 20 per cent increase! Memory performed well too, hitting 1368MHz, proving this card as a great overclocker.
For what is essentially half a GTX295 (see the boxout), the performance of the card was quite good. It provides a perfectly playable Crysis, a smooth 3DMark06/Vantage and remains quiet throughout use. The only thing that is really missing with this card, apart from a size reduction, is the bundle; there was no game included. All the cables you'd want are there though, as well as a copy of Galaxy's Xtreme Tuner software, which is decent enough to overclock with (though we'd recommend Rivatuner instead).
For a card cooled well, with huge overclocking headroom and a price only about forty dollars over the absolute lowest price for any GTX275 online this is an excellent choice, and you won't be left wanting for much.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012