Published: May 28, 2017 | Source: Palit | Author: Tom Logan

Palit GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Review

Conclusion

When nVidia released the Pascal GPU it was quickly apparent that the hardware was so consistent, so exceptional, that it was going to take tiny things to differentiate the various cards. With the upgraded GTX 1080 Ti that is, if anything, truer than it was before. With the GPU Boost 3.0 technology making the most of any thermal headroom the most important thing is cooling. After that it’s down to personal preference with regards to the looks or the cost.

So let’s get the performance bit out of the way first, because that is unquestionably the easiest thing to get your head around. It’s a GTX 1080 Ti. You already know it is brilliant and the Palit has done nothing to diminish those qualities. Indeed the cooler is so capable that we saw some very good average boost clocks from it. Peak boost clocks are all well and good, but you really want consistently high average ones, and the Palit GameRock delivered. With three different modes available too, OC, Gamer and Silence, you have a choice about how hard you wish to run it. Naturally we pushed it as fast as it could go in the OC mode, but even here the temperatures only hit 70Â°C which is fantastic for a dual fan cooler, even if the GameRock actually has four fans.

The area that will split opinion probably the most concretely is the looks, with a card that is unquestionably blue. How much that blue aesthetic fits into your own personal tastes only you can decide. We found that behind a smoked window – as nearly all of them are – it ended up looking a little more purple than blue, and that helped tremendously, even if it does still limit the harmonious colour choices from the excellent RGB lighting equipped on the GameRock.

It is such slender margins that are the only real differences between any of the Pascal GPU cards currently on the market. If you like the idea of a cooler that isn’t a slave to the endless parade of black graphics cards, then the Palit GameRock is a great performer with consistently good scores throughout our testing, great cooling performance, and some very capable RGB lighting, which is why it wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.