Galax RTX 5070 Ti HoF (Hall of Fame) review – To the top with a monster board?

1 - Introduction, overview and technical specifications 2 - Test system and equipment 3 - Teardown: PCB and components 4 - Teardown: Cooling system 5 - Teardown: Material analysis and TIM 6 - Benchmarks: gaming performance 7 - Power consumption, transients, PSU recommendation 8 - Clock rates and overclocking 9 - Temperatures and thermal imaging 10 - Fan curves and noise with audio samples 11 - Summary and conclusion

Paste or pad?

The question of the material between the GPU and the cooler base is not only a technical detail, but also an aspect that many readers and potential buyers are keenly interested in. In this case, the situation was a little more unusual, as the test sample of the Galax RTX 5070 Ti Hall of Fame I received was still from the pre-production series and was equipped with DOWSIL TC-5888 ex works. For series production, however, Honeywell PTM7950 will be used. Galax even provided me with an original PTM7950 sheet from current production, which I immediately examined out of pure skepticism and compared with my own reference material.

The result was clear, the delivered foil corresponds to my reference. The question of the “original condition” then arose in two respects: Do I measure the card as I took it out of the packaging, i.e. with the DOWSIL TC-5888, or with the cooling surface converted to PTM7950? To resolve this uncertainty, I first extensively tested both variants thermally.

For the first run, the card remained in the factory state of the pre-series, i.e. with the already used DOWSIL TC-5888, which I collected from the cooler. Although the material was no longer fresh, it was sufficient for a regression curve from a layer thickness of 300 µm (instead of the usual 400 µm). This allowed me to compare both the thermal influence of the original paste material and that of the PTM7950 used later, giving a clearer picture of the final product configuration.

At over 6.3 W/mK, this durable pad is of course a better solution than almost all available pastes, but only marginally better. But I’ll have measurements on this later when it comes to GPU temperatures. The fact is: I have given the card to the market as I took it out of the box, because in the end it turned out that even the boost clocks are identical. This in turn saves me a lot of work, because I only had to benchmark once when it came to performance. Here again the pad up to the burn-in. As the real layer thickness is around 40 to 50 µm, the effective thermal resistance is no better than with the paste. Only the warm-up behavior is slightly different, but we’ll see about that.

The thermal pads

The thermal pad used on the memory and VRM areas of the Galax RTX 5070 Ti Hall of Fame shows a thermal conductivity of around 3.92 W/mK with a measured interface resistance of 6.6 mm²K/W in the measurements. This puts the performance in the midfield and is sufficient for the intended purpose, but by no means outstanding. The values make it clear that the pad does not offer the best possible heat transfer compared to high-quality high-performance materials, especially with higher heat loads such as those that can occur with GDDR7 memory and powerful VRM stages. Nevertheless, the correlation coefficient of the measurement series is very high at 0.9986, which indicates a consistent material quality. Galax has indicated that it would like to make further improvements here. Either pads with higher thermal conductivity or an optimized thickness are conceivable in order to further reduce the thermal resistance. Such an adjustment could noticeably improve the temperature reserves of the memory and power supply and thus round off the overall cooling concept of the card.

Under the microscope, the thermal pad installed on the Galax RTX 5070 Ti Hall of Fame for memory and VRM cooling shows a heterogeneous, clearly porous surface structure with irregularly distributed filler particles. Even at low magnification, it can be seen that the surface is not smooth, but is characterized by microscopic elevations and depressions, which indicates a mixture of binding matrix and thermally conductive fillers. Under higher resolution, individual, sometimes irregularly shaped particles embedded in the soft, polymer-based matrix become visible. The material distribution appears relatively uniform, but small air pockets are visible, which can slightly impair the effective heat transfer.

LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) analysis shows a clear dominance of oxygen (38.3 wt%), aluminum (27.9 wt%) and silicon (16.1 wt%), supplemented by carbon (14.8 wt%) and a small amount of hydrogen (2.9 wt%). The composition indicates a silicone-based thermal putty that contains aluminum oxide fillers but is formulated without zinc oxide (ZnO-free). Aluminum oxide acts here as the primary heat conductor, silicone as a flexible carrier matrix, while the oxygen content comes predominantly from the oxide fillers. In practice, this means The material offers solid, but not outstanding, thermal conductivity. The measured thermal parameters confirm the optical and chemical findings; it is a rather conservatively designed pad that ensures the protection of the components and sufficient heat dissipation, but still leaves room for optimization – especially if Galax, as announced, switches to a more powerful material in a later revision.

Analysis of vapor-chamber and aluminum carrier frame

The large vapor chamber is made of pure electrolytic copper and is a central element of the cooling concept. It has a nickel coating and is also partially coated with a black coating. This design offers several technical advantages that improve both the efficiency of heat dissipation and the longevity of the components. The nickel coating of the vapor chamber offers additional advantages. Nickel is not only corrosion resistant, but also protects the chamber’s sensitive copper surfaces from oxidation.

This protective coating is particularly important in environments with high humidity or aggressive chemical conditions, as it ensures the long-term stability and performance of the chamber. In addition, nickel improves the mechanical stability of the surface, which increases the durability of the entire cooling structure. Another advantage of nickel coating is its compatibility with modern thermal pastes and pads. Some materials, especially those with metal particles, can react chemically with uncoated copper. The nickel coating prevents such reactions and ensures that the thermal properties remain constant over the entire service life.

Let us now take a look at the structural framework of the radiator. The frame is made of aluminum, which has also enjoyed the heavily pigmented immersion bath. The cooler frame of the Galax RTX 5070 Ti Hall of Fame is made of solid cast aluminum, which gives it high structural stability and torsional rigidity. This design not only keeps the heatsink precisely in position, but also distributes the weight of the entire cooling system evenly across the board to avoid mechanical stress at individual points. The surface of the frame is completely covered with a matt black coating.

This primarily serves to visually harmonize with the black cooling fins and heatpipes, but also offers a certain degree of protection against oxidation and corrosion. At the same time, the coating ensures that the cooler blends seamlessly into the overall design of the card, without distracting reflections or color differences. In conjunction with the large-area vapor chamber and the embedded heat pipes, this aluminium frame forms the load-bearing basis for efficient heat dissipation, while also serving as a mounting point for the fan and cover. In terms of heat dissipation, aluminum offers good thermal conductivity and is sufficient for most applications. This allows heat to be effectively dissipated from critical components such as voltage converters.

This also applies to the much thinner cooling fins and I suspect that the black coating on the entire radiator was applied using a so-called dip coating process. The component is first mechanically deburred and cleaned, then immersed in a liquid coating medium, usually a paint or powder suspension. This ensures that the coating film evenly covers the entire surface, including hard-to-reach areas such as cooling fin gaps. The part is then slowly pulled out to achieve a uniform coating thickness. The coating is then cured, typically by oven drying or baking, to create a durable, visually homogeneous protective layer. This process is cost-efficient, uniform and particularly suitable for complex geometries such as a GPU cooler frame.

That concludes this section and we’ll play another round. Turn the page please!