Published: January 30, 2025 | Source: Palit | Author: Tom Logan

Palit RTX 5080 GameRock OC Review

Conclusion

In the introduction we said about how you shouldn’t only concentrate on the “big” manufacturers. Zotac proved that yesterday, and Palit have done so today.

On a day when we’re also reviewing the latest in the famous ASUS ROG range, the difference between the two couldn’t be more stark. The ASUS Astral had excellent performance, but high power usage and intolerable noise levels for a massive price hike over the vanilla cards. The Palit GameRock, even here in OC form, has the same excellent performance as has been clear throughout our testing today. What it also has is lower temperatures than the ASUS, is much quieter under load, demands much less power, and is significantly cheaper.

Imagine blindly buying a £1300+ card because of the name on it, only to see it get spanked by the £1099 Palit GameRock OC. To borrow a phrase from football, you’d be sick as a parrot.

The only minor quibble would be the new Chameleon Panel cover. Palit have always been about the glitz, and the Blackwell card is no exception. Do we prefer it to the older Kaleidoscope design? Hmm. Too soon to tell. If you’re the type who has a monochrome rig and a vertically mounted card it might be too much. However, if you’re adventurous, or just run your GPU in the standard orientation, the performance on screen is so dazzling you won’t even notice.

The Palit RTX 5080 GameRock OC is the best of the RTX 5080s we’ve reviewed for launch. It has the perfect blend of high performance, low power draw and cool temperatures. The looks might be slightly polarising, but at a mere £1099, a hundred above MSRP, it’s phenomenally attractive and easily wins our OC3D Enthusiast Award.