Review: Galax GeForce GTX 980 SOC

Conclusion

Nvidia's partners are queuing up to bring custom GTX 980s to retail for your delectation. There's no shortage of choice, but having reviewed four overclocked cards, we've yet to see one that ticks every available box.

It's a balancing act for manufacturers, who attempt to juggle shipping frequencies, cooling performance, fan noise and price, and more often than not, excellence in one area results in a trade-off elsewhere.

For Galax, the GTX 980 SOC focuses on performance enthusiasts who crave maximum speeds for an agreeable fee. Priced at £430 and factory overclocked to a lofty 1,228MHz, this is not only one of the fastest GTX 980s available at retail, but one of the most affordable, too.

That's a combination that historically has guaranteed sales, but with today's increasingly-efficient GPUs, there are others factors to take into consideration. As it stands, the GTX 980 SOC isn't the quietest card under load and doesn't boast the silent-when-idle credentials of certain rivals. Willing to accept those compromises? Then at £430, this is one of the quickest GTX 980s around.

Galax GeForce GTX 980 SOC

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The Galax GeForce GTX 980 SOC graphics card is available to purchase from Overclockers UK.

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