KFA2 - Why so cheap?

Bottle · 17 Jun 2016 at 18:57

It's been 4 years since I last shopped for a graphics card (my Radeon 7950 had served me well).

Now considering a GTX 1070 and noticed KAF2, a brand I'd never heard of before. I vaguely remember Galaxy as a brand from the past but can't remember anything about them.

Being the cheapest graphics cards on offer, one would naturally expect them to be of inferior quality, but so far from searching these forums and elsewhere on the Internet, I only see an occasional anecdotal claim to that effect whereas there are numerous claims to how good the cars are. There doesn't seem to be any hard evidence one way or the other.

As I'm probably just missing finding the information, I thought I'd ask directly what is the gen on KFA2. Is there anything really "wrong" with them?

Seanspeed · 17 Jun 2016 at 19:02

Cheap blower-style cooler. Wont run as cool as other cards and thus will probably come with a bit extra noise, too.

But if you're not an overclocker, I wouldn't say there's anything 'wrong' with it, necessarily.

tavtavtav · 17 Jun 2016 at 19:10

Seanspeed said:
Cheap blower-style cooler. Wont run as cool as other cards and thus will probably come with a bit extra noise, too.

But if you're not an overclocker, I wouldn't say there's anything 'wrong' with it, necessarily.

KFA2 have a legit open cooler at £374.99...
(Just £10 more than their blower)

Zeed · 17 Jun 2016 at 19:21

Mate all of them founders cards are SAME **** with different sticker.

All extra You pay on those are RMA and Warranty policies.

Btw sitting to my flat mates KFA2 680gtx 0 problems from day one they came on sale.

Danny75 · 17 Jun 2016 at 19:22

I'd say there's a market that wants cheaper or cheapest and KFA2 target it with some of their offerings. With a two-year warranty they can maybe afford to sell them a bit cheaper as it cuts down on RMA costs. Just speculating.

It depends on the model though, the HOFs aren't exactly cheap and tend to come with about as many power phases as comparative cards, etc.

They replaced my dead GTX 680 EX OC with a GTX 970 OC, after struggling to find a like-for-like replacement as it was EOL and quite a lengthy delay, so the final replacement with better card was a nice touch. Ought to mention that apparently their RMA service tends to be a lot faster in general, and my experience (RMA'd card in their possession for 4 weeks before sending replacement out) was an exception to the rule for whatever reason*. So don't be put off by that.

* From what I was told, a 680 replacement had been sourced, but had to come in a shipment that ended up delayed through no fault of theirs, and that messed the whole schedule up, so they eventually offered me a 970 instead.

The GTX 970 OC is one of the smaller 970s out there, as well as among the cheapest, but mine overclocks really well, can bench at 1565/8000MHz, and is stable in all my games at 1525/7800MHz.

phenx · 17 Jun 2016 at 21:54

My current 980ti is a KFA2, and I've got nothing but good things to say about it. It overclocks like a dream and its given me no issues, of course this is anecdotal.

Greebo · 17 Jun 2016 at 23:00

My take is that KFA2 are pricing their cards sensibly unlike other manufacturers.

SO far I have been much more impressed by some of the none usual names like Pallit, Gainward and Inno3d.

All of them have bespoke cards with great coolers for less than flounders editions.

mickyflinn · 17 Jun 2016 at 23:10

Ive had powercolor gpus's before and they are considered low end but never had any problems with them. KFA2 are a simmalar brand and i believe formely known or taken over galaxy.

Aretak · 17 Jun 2016 at 23:24

They're really not "cheap" so much as they are sensibly-priced. I've read nothing but good things about their EXOC cards and they make the Hall of Fame series that are some of the best-built cards around.

mickyflinn said:
Ive had powercolor gpus's before and they are considered low end but never had any problems with them. KFA2 are a simmalar brand and i believe formely known or taken over galaxy.

Galaxy is the company behind them. KFA2 is their European brand, although they briefly changed to 'Galax' (with no y) around the time of the 900 series launch. Apparently that didn't go down well as they soon switched back to KFA2.

Sasahara · 17 Jun 2016 at 23:31

Got a Galax 970 OC for work mate and was impressed with the quality of it considering it was the cheapest non blower at the time. (1st week of the release I think).

If you on a tight budget I'd say it's definitely worth considering.

FrozenShivers · 17 Jun 2016 at 23:44

Just e-mailed them regarding stock cooler removal policy, FTW is taking forever to arrive and I'm going to put a block on the thing so checking out other options.

heighnub · 18 Jun 2016 at 00:47

Perhaps the thread should be titled "Non-KFA2 - why so expensive?"

Quartz · 18 Jun 2016 at 00:59

Galaxy / KFA had a rep active on HardOCP's messageboard. I don't know if he's still there.

arc@css · 18 Jun 2016 at 01:03

I can't remember whom or when, but if my memory serves me correctly one of the shop staff posted ages ago stating that KFA2 were a good choice among card vendors. I've certainly been happy with my 980Ti, very cool and quiet.

HarryBizzle · 18 Jun 2016 at 01:47

Their "stock" coolers on the Clown 1080/Freddy Kruger 1070 - are they any worse than the stock FE coolers?

FloydCranks · 18 Jun 2016 at 01:53

Had Galax [KFA2] 970 OC and it was better than my first 970 from Gigabyte [G1] in every way, not to mention was cheaper. [quieter at same temperatures, had no coil whine when OC'ed and even clocked higher than G1]

MissChief · 18 Jun 2016 at 02:14

I had a KFA2 780 which died and got sent away to them. Because it was a 6gb card they were trying to replace it like for like which was proving next to impossible. A bit of too and fro and they accepted my suggestion of a 980 and it's been running very happily in my machine since. I can't fault them at all and would certainly consider one for my next card

philo-sofa · 18 Jun 2016 at 03:47

I bought a Galax 970 EXOC and like a others here I think it's been a genuinely awesome card. It was silent, had a decent power limit (+25%), it overclocked well and from what I read and could see visually, was well made. I'm very sad to be parting with it TBH. If they had been in stock, I would have gone for an EXOC over the MSI Gaming X particularly given it appears to be the same cooler.

So yeah I'd go for an EXOC model, but would have zero issues suggesting GALAX / KFA2.

HACO · 18 Jun 2016 at 06:12

Aretak said:
They're really not "cheap" so much as they are sensibly-priced. I've read nothing but good things about their EXOC cards and they make the Hall of Fame series that are some of the best-built cards around.

Galaxy is the company behind them. KFA2 is their European brand, although they briefly changed to 'Galax' (with no y) around the time of the 900 series launch. Apparently that didn't go down well as they soon switched back to KFA2.

Yeah they're just sensibly priced unlike others this generation.

Bottle · 18 Jun 2016 at 09:43

Thank you all for your prompt replies and useful information. Great community spirit here! I'll go KFA2.