Although it borrows heavily from NVIDIA’s reference design, XFX – like always – has a few spins on the product that help define it into its own and clearly help differentiate it from the competition. The oversized cooling fan is larger than other similar cards we’ve seen so far which use the same reference cooler – this lets XFX design spin the fan at a slower RPM for lower noise but still have excellent cooling properties. Additionally, XFX always puts a black-colored bar which runs the length of the card sporting the XFX moniker.

I’m not a huge fan (no pun intended) of the single slot design much anymore as it has no way to exhaust the heat outside of the PC. While single slot design does have its merit with less space taken up it’s the issue of “where does all the heat go” that’s paramount to me. That’s why I would’ve preferred to see XFX go with a dual-slot cooler; maybe next time.

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