Port Royal is the name of the latest component of UL Benchmarks 3DMark. Designed to take advantage of the DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API, this benchmark features an extreme poly-count test-scene with real-time ray-traced elements. Screengrabs of the benchmark depict spacecraft entering and leaving mirrored spheres suspended within a planet's atmosphere, which appear to be docks. It's also a shout out to of a number of space-sims such as "Star Citizen," which could up their production in the future by introducing ray-tracing. The benchmark will debut at the GALAX GOC Grand Final on December 8, where the first public run will be powered by a GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti HOF graphics card. It will start selling in January 2019.

While GALAX has introduced numerous solid graphics cards over the years, their product names are a bit of a mouthful, or in some cases just odd. The latest example being their EX OC "White Gamer" line, which, let's face it, is a tad off-putting to say the least. Of course we know that GALAX aren't racist, but you have to wonder how something like this happens. It probably comes down to marketing focusing too much on buzzwords, forgetting the context of said words in the process. In my humble opinion you can trace it back to the fact every company has to stick "Gaming" in every product name or on every box. In this case you would think the fact the product is a graphics card for gaming would be enough to get the point across.

It all started with MSI in 2013, when NVIDIA Kepler was all the rage. They released the "MSI GTX 780 Gaming", which was an amazing product, better than what most other graphics cards vendors had to offer. Competitors were surprised by the success of MSI's new cards and instead of searching into the reasons for their own products failures, their conclusion was that it must be the "Gaming" name, that drove the sales, so suddenly everybody started to fluff up their product names.

GALAX has announced availability of their OC Lab Edition GPU Pot, a non-plant-based solution for users to cool their graphics cards with. The OC Lab Edition GPU Pot is fully made of 99.9% purity copper, which allows it to withstand up to -196 ºC. Not many more details are available for now, except pricing, and it's something to definitely not smile about: the OC Lab Edition GPU Pot will cost users $229.99.

GALAX, however, being a customer-friendly brand, are suggesting users put down an order for three of these OC Lab Edition GPU Pot alongside three of their own Galax HOF OC Lab WC cards, which go for $1,799... netting you a $600 discount on the pots. So, yeah. There's that. If you want it.

GALAX spilled the beans on the specifications of two of NVIDIA's upcoming high-end graphics cards, as it's becoming increasingly clear that the company could launch the GeForce RTX 2080 and the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti simultaneously, to convince GeForce "Pascal" users to upgrade. The company's strategy appears to be to establish 40-100% performance gains over the previous generation, along with a handful killer features (such as RTX, VirtuaLink, etc.,) to trigger the upgrade-itch.

Leaked slides from GALAX confirm that the RTX 2080 will be based on the TU104-400 ASIC, while the RTX 2080 Ti is based on the TU102-300. The RTX 2080 will be endowed with 2,944 CUDA cores, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory; while the RTX 2080 Ti packs 4,352 CUDA cores, and a 352-bit GDDR6 memory bus, with 11 GB of memory. The memory clock on both is constant, at 14 Gbps. The RTX 2080 has its TDP rated at 215W, and draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors; while the RTX 2080 Ti pulls 250W TDP, drawing power through a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. You also get to spy GALAX' triple-fan non-reference cooling solution in the slides below.

It's not just fast memory, but also fast storage from GALAX this Computex. The company unveiled three new SSD products, beginning with the Hall of Fame (HOF) E12 AIC PCIe SSD. This drive features signature HOF styling, complete with the white PCB, and a silvery shroud. There's also a dash of RGB LED lighting elements along the top and front of the shroud. The drive comes in 1 TB capacity, and combines 3D TLC NAND flash with new Phison PS5012-E12 controller. The drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.1 x4 and the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The drive is capable of sequential speeds of up to 3400 MB/s reads, with up to 3000 MB/s writes, and 4K random access speeds of up to 600,000 IOPS.

Next up, is the GALAX One 2.5-inch SATA drive. The model shown has 240 GB capacity, and combines MLC NAND flash with Phison PS3111-S11 controller, to serve up sequential transfer rates of up to 520 MB/s reads, and up to 460 MB/s writes, and 4K random access speeds of up to 90,000 IOPS reads, with up to 80,000 IOPS writes. Lastly, there's the GamerRGB, a 2.5-inch SATA drive with 256 GB capacity, the same PS3111-S11 controller, but RGB LED lighting. The company didn't reveal performance numbers for this drive.

GALAX unveiled its Hall of Fame (HOF) Extreme series limited edition DDR4 memory with a staggering speed rating of DDR4-5000. Featuring a gold-plated heatspreader, this 16 GB (8 GB x2) dual-channel kit ticks at DDR4-5000 with timings of 21-36-36-46, and at 1.50V. If that's a little too much to handle, there's also an identical-looking kit with DDR4-4700 speeds, with tighter timings of 19-26-26-46, at 1.50V.

There's also chrome/silver colored kit clocked at DDR4-4500, with 19-19-19-39 timings and 1.40V DRAM voltage, though it lacks the limited edition tag. Getting into the mid-range of this series, we find the HOF Extreme DDR4-3600 kit, with a similar design, but matte-white heatspreaders, 17-18-18-38 timings, and safer voltages of 1.35V. The gateway to this series is the HOF Extreme DDR4-3200, with 16-18-18-38 timings, at 1.35V, and a matte-black heatspreader.

GALAX and its EU-specific brand KFA2 announced the SNPR external graphics enclosure, with a factory-fitted GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB graphics card. Measuring 165 mm x 156.5 mm x 73 mm (WxDxH), and weighing in at 1.38 kg, the enclosure relies on an external power brick. Internally, it's a stack-up of three key components, the main-board which takes in power and Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) host connectivity, and puts out a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot; the extremely compact graphics card PCB, and the custom-design fan-heatsink cooler, which combines an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, with a pair of 70 mm spinners, to keep cool.

The enclosure is made of SECC steel, that's perforated along three sides. Display outputs from the card include one each of DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and dual-link DVI-D. The internal GTX 1060 6 GB graphics card ticks at factory-overclocked speeds of 1531 MHz core, 1746 MHz GPU Boost, and 8.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory (against reference clocks of 1506/1709 MHz). An external 230W power-brick (included) supplies power to the unit. Available now, the KFA2/GALAX SNPR GTX 1060 6 GB is priced at 499€ in the EU, including taxes.

GALAX' EU-regional wing KFA2 rolled out the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti EX-SNPR White graphics card. A step above the GTX 1070 Ti EX graphics card, the SNPR White comes with a white metallic cooler shroud, while fan impellers, white LED lighting over the fans, and a white metallic back-plate with RGB LED diffusers. RGB LEDs line the periphery of the back-plate, and the "GeForce GTX" decal on top of the card. The card ships with NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1607 MHz core, and 1683 MHz GPU Boost. Its memory ticks at 8.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective).

Drawing power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors, the card conditions it using a 7-phase VRM. It uses a custom-design aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of 100 mm fans, which stay off when the card is idling. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and DVI-D. Based on the 16 nm "GP104" silicon, the GTX 1070 Ti features 2,432 CUDA cores, 152 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. The KFA2 GeForce GTX 1070 Ti EX-SNPR White is priced at 479€ (including VAT).

GALAX has seemingly found itself in a profitable market position with its products marketed for the premium enthusiast, with their (perspective depending) bold good looks and out of the ordinary propositions for new products. Now, the company has announced an extremely limited edition kit (really; there are just 50 of these) of DDR4 memory, aptly named the HOF Extreme Limited Edition. The "Extreme Performance" engraving on the aluminum heat spreaders serves as a psychological reminder for the kits that they just "gotta go fast", and should put to rest concerns regarding memory performance.

Under the heatspreaders rest handpicked Samsung B-die chips, which should guarantee better performance and stability compared to other memory dies (particularly in the AMD Ryzen platform). The modules are available for direct purchase from the GALAX store, and the company is currently offering a 20% discount for users who have previously acquired one of the company's GALAX GTX 1080Ti OC Lab Edition. The kits are available in 16 GB (2x 8GB) dual-channel pairs, and orders will receive free shipping with an estimated shipping date towards the end of the month. The kits run at particularly impressive speeds of 4133MHz, with CL 19-21-21-41 timings, at 1.35V. Pricing is slightly less limited in this product, though; a dual-channel kit will set you back some $368 (around $294 if you have previously bought the OC Lab Edition GTX 1080 Ti.)

GALAX is apparently on the verge of launching two GPU overclocking-specific products, materialized in the HOF Power Board and an LN2 memory pot kit. Built to increase overclockability in your graphics card of choice, the GALAX power board will allow you to feed the GPU with way more power than it is designed to receive - provided you have decent cooling for the increased temperatures and operating voltages. And with the caveat of whether or not your GPU manufacturer of choice allows such changes in voltage.

Around one year ago, GALAX introduced their Gamer DDR4 memory kits, which counted with LED illumination - these were not RGB parts, mind you, and instead, you had to choose between either Red, Green or Blue LEDs with matching color lid. But the times, they are a-changing, and nowadays, pure LED illumination isn't enough: gamers want permanent customization ability, so they can keep cycling kaleidoscopic colors around them at a whim.What the GALAX Gamer III line-up does well is that their RGB prowess comes absent of any unsightly extra cables for separate RGB power; like the G.Skill Trident Z, these make do without any extra wiring. However, where these fall short is on frequency and timings. It's almost as if the added LEDs reduce DRAM performance, since these kits will (at least for now) only be available in 2666 MHz frequency kits with CL 15... Which, for a company such as GALAX, with its over the top GPUs, seems slightly anemic. GALAX has yet to announce which motherboard manufacturers will support RGB controls, pricing, or actual availability dates (so, all the important bits.)

GALAX today introduced its more affordable custom-design GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, the EXOC White. The card combines an NVIDIA reference-design PCB with a custom-design cooling solution that's characterized by its milky white shroud and fan impellers, and a white back-plate. Under the shroud is a strong aluminium fin dual-stack heatsink that employs five 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes to distribute heat drawn directly from the GPU die, to two aluminium fin-stacks, which are ventilated by a pair of 90 mm fans, which stay off when the GPU is idling. The cooler also features white LED illumination.

The GALAX GTX 1080 Ti EXOC White ships with factory-overclocked speeds of 1531 MHz core, 1645 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective) memory, against NVIDIA reference speeds of 1480/1582 MHz (core/boost). Galaxy's EU-specific brand, KFA2, also unveiled an identical version of this card under its name. The company didn't reveal pricing.

This here is probably the most beautiful AIB partner card I've ever seen (and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so you are naturally free to disagree with me.) The pristine color scheme and subdued backplate design really stand out for me, as does the white PCB. Nitpicking, I hoped the power cables would not be color coded as they are, but I guess that would invite disaster.

GALAX is marketing the KATANA as the world's first single-slot GTX 1070 single-slot graphics card with a maximum thickness at just 16 mm, which is an engineering feat in itself. The card leverages a "legendary turbo radiator" (it's funny how the renders show a white warning sign next to the cooling fan with a "CAUTION Hot Surface" warning, though that's probably needed there to avoid any lawsuits from burns resulting from touching the card while gaming.)

The card features a RazorX cooling technique, with copper fins and a vapor chamber that "maintain cooling performance even in thermally challenging scenario(s)". The GALAX GTX 1070 KATANA uses a single 8-pin connector, and video output is taken care of by 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and a single DL-DVI-D connector. Clocks on the card are reported at 1518 MHz base, and 1708 MHz boost clocks. I wince at the noise and heat this baby must put out, and wonder how much it's going to be thermally throttled, but I guess those are necessary drawbacks for what is otherwise an interesting single-slot design.

GALAX has detailed their Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, "packed with extreme gaming horsepower, next-gen 11 Gbps GDDR5X memory, and a massive 11 GB frame buffer." As a casual reminder, the GTX 1080 Ti packs 3584 CUDA Cores, and runs at a 1480 MHz Base Clock and a 1582 MHz Boost Clock. The 11 Gbps GDDR5X memory chips deliver 484 GB/s memory bandwidth over a 352-bit bus. The GTX 1080 Ti's most interesting details, aside from its performance metrics and its $699 price tag, are the upgrade to a 2x dual-FET design, alongside a vapor-chamber cooling solution

All in all, there isn't much that differentiates the "Founders Edition" graphics cards from NVIDIA's AIB partners, save for the box art. I for one don't find my confidence and enthusiasm renewed by the clown's sight, but... Your mileage may vary?

Joining in on other manufacturer's offerings for low-profile graphics solutions for HTPCs and other small fomr factor PCs, GALAX has recently announced that they too will be offering low-profile variants of the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards. With 2 GB and 4 GB of GDDR5 at 7 Gbps respectively, both over a 128 bit bus, both cards make do without any additional power connectors, making do with exclusive power delivery from the PCIe socket.

The core clocks are set at 1303 MHz and 1366 MHz base clocks for the 1050 and the 1060 Ti respectively, with boost clocks seeing a healthy (but somewhat traditional)n uplift to 1417 Mhz and 1468 Mhz. As to connectors, both cards carry 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x DVI-D, and 1x HDMI 2.0b. Considering the cards' characteristics, they probably won't be sold much higher than NVIDIA's reference MSRP for both cards: $139 for the GTX 1050 Ti and $109 for the GTX 1050.

GALAX, at its GEC 2016 special event, unveiled a host of new graphics cards. While it's likely that all of these are designed for the Chinese market, one of the cards piqued our interest - the world's first single-slot GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card (as captioned by Chinese tech publication XFastest). This could even be a GTX 1060, looking at the visual similarities the PCB of the card shares with GTX 1060 Founders Edition. Given the 150W TDP of the GTX 1070, a single-slot card can certainly not be ruled out. The card appears to feature a dense copper fin-channel heatsink through which air is guided by a lateral-flow fan, covered by a metal cooler shroud with an industrial design. GALAX could launch this card some time in 2017.

GALAX whitewashed its GeForce GTX 1060 6GB EXOC graphics card with its "White Edition" variant. The Galaxy subsidiary, which shares much of its product design with sister-brand KFA2, gave the card the distinctive milky-white color-scheme Galaxy brands are famous for, except it didn't go the whole way. The white color-scheme is limited to the cooler shroud, fan impellers, and the full-length back-plate. The underlying PCB, however, remains black.

The GALAX GTX 1060 6 GB EXOC White Edition serves up factory-overclocked speeds of 1556 MHz core, 1771 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 8 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory, against NVIDIA reference speeds of 1506/1709 MHz. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. An aluminium fin-stack heatsink featuring 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 90 mm fans, keeps the card cool. GALAX didn't reveal pricing or availability.

Here's the first picture of a custom-design SLI HB (high-bandwidth) bridge by GALAX. With NVIDIA recommending a new kind of SLI bridge for NVIDIA "Pascal" GPUs to give you the smoothest possible display at high-resolutions, NVIDIA partners have taken it upon themselves to launch SLI HB bridges (which you purchase separately, of course). Following last night's MSI Gaming SLI HB reveal, we have the GALAX Hall of Fame SLI HB bridge in our hands. There's not much to the bridge besides a white PCB, two SLI contact slots with metal reinforcements, and a white LED lighting up a GALAX HOF logo on the bridge's shroud. The bridge has a 2U spacing (allowing for 1-slot gap between two dual-slot graphics cards).

Here's the first picture of GALAX' flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 1080 Hall of Fame (HOF). The card features the company's strongest VRM solution for this chip, with a 12-phase setup that draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, 2 GHz-scraping factory OC, and the groovy styling of a white PCB, with a mostly white colored cooling solution. One way to take advantage of the white scheme is to embed it with RGB multi-color LEDs. Enthusiasts also get features such as dual-BIOS, letting them tinker with their expensive card's BIOS. The card shown to us features a triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution, however, it wouldn't surprise us if GALAX also launched a liquid cooling-ready variant with a factory-fitted full-coverage water block.

It looks like GALAX has a pretty comprehensive lineup of GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards, addressing key performance-thru-enthusiast price-points. The lineup begins with the blower-type base model. This card is built to a cost, and GALAX could look to sell it close to the $379 baseline NVIDIA set for the GTX 1070. Higher up the ladder, is the company's custom-design EXOC graphics card.

Expected to be priced close to the $450 price NVIDIA is asking for the GTX 1070 Founders Edition card, the EXOC gives you more, with a large triple-fan cooling solution, a custom-design PCB with a stronger VRM, and factory-overclocked speeds. Then there's the GTX 1070 Hall of Fame, which GALAX is still working on. The company only has its PCB (minus the ASIC) to show us. Likely priced above $500, this card will feature the company's highest factory-OC which should get its performance in the same ballpark as some of the affordable custom-design GTX 1080 cards (while looking a lot cooler).

The Hall of Fame DDR4-4000 is just the tip of the iceberg, with the company giving finishing touches to a broader line of performance-segment memory kits addressing various price-points, under the colorful Gamer series. The module consists of a black PCB with a single-color crown, and its matching color LEDs glowing with a "breathing" effect. The modules come in speeds of DDR4-2133, DDR4-2400, DDR4-2666, DDR4-2800, and DDR4-3000; and in densities of 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB (16 GB not available on some of the higher clocked models); making up 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB dual-channel kits, respectively. The DDR4-2133, DDR4-2400, and DDR4-2666 modules are timed at 15-15-15-35 @1.2V; the DDR4-2800 module at 16-16-16-36 @1.2V; and the DDR4-3000 module at 16-16-16-36 @1.35V.

It looks like GALAX is also kicking the door in with enthusiast memory. The company showed off its top of the line Hall of Fame (HOF) DDR4-4000 memory, which features the company's signature white PCB, and design language along the white+chrome heatspreaders. The module comes in densities of 4 GB and 8 GB (making up 8 GB and 16 GB dual-channel kits, respectively). It achieves its marketed speed of DDR4-4000 with timings of 19-25-25-45, and module voltage of 1.4 Volts. The heatspreaders feature white LEDs with "breathing" effect.

GALAX is preparing an onslaught for the enthusiast consumer SSD space, with the new Hall of Fame (HOF) NVMe Series. Spanning three key enthusiast form-factors, namely 2.5-inch with 32 Gb/s U.2 interface; 32 Gb/s M.2, and PCI-Express 3.0 x4 add-on card; the lineup sees the company use a very powerful custom controller to churn up sequential transfer rates of 2.5 TB/s. To begin with, the 2.5-inch with U.2 form-factor drive comes in 512 GB and 1 TB sizes, offering speeds of up to 2500 MB/s reads, with 1200 MB/s writes, 300,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and 250,000 IOPS 4K random writes.

The M.2 lineup comes in two module lengths - the more common M.2-2280, and the longer M.2-22110. The M.2-2280 drive comes in capacities of up to 512 GB, and offers slightly higher write-performance of up to 1350 MB/s, while the M.2-22110 drive comes in capacities of up to 1 TB, offering the same transfer rates as the U.2 drives. Then there's the PCIe add-on card form-factor drive for those without either M.2 or U.2, which comes in sizes of up to 1 TB, and has the same performance as the U.2 drives. There's also a 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive in this series, but its specs don't hold our attention for too long.

Here are some of the first pictures of a GALAX branded GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card's box. Besides the SKU name, the box doesn't say much about the card it packs. Also pictured are renders of the GeForce GTX 1070 PCB from GALAX. This could very well be derived from NVIDIA's reference design PCB for the SKU. You can tell it's GTX 1070 looking at the bigger GDDR5 memory chips surrounding the ASIC. The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The GeForce GTX 1070 goes on sale from June 10, 2016.