Shootouts

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti shootout: The fastest cards money can buy

By Koh Wanzi - 25 Dec 2017

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

Palit’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition is the flagship model in the company’s stable of custom cards. It also comes decked out in a striking blue color just like the other GameRock cards, but how you feel about it may depend on whether or not you’re going for a color-coordinated build. This is also the most affordable custom GeForce GTX 1080 Ti card here at S$1,258. In other words, it's still expensive, but it doesn't quite reach the stratospheric pricing of some of the other cards.

Overall, the card’s design is quite conservative, and there are no fancy custom LCD panels or anything like that. However, one interesting thing to note is that while this looks like a fairly standard dual-fan cooler, it actually has no less than four fans.

It’s a little difficult to tell from the pictures, but the fans are actually stacked on top of each other. Palit calls this TurboJET4, and because the top and bottom fans spin in opposite directions, this supposedly helps reduce the formation of vortexes that could interfere with air flow.

In theory, this then helps funnel air more effectively through the heatsink and speeds up heat dissipation.

The cooler is paired with a brushed metal backplate, and you can also see an additional supporting bracket for the GPU die through the backplate. 

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

No card aspiring to the premium segment of the market would be complete without RGB LEDs, and the GameRock Premium doesn’t disappoint. The cooling shroud and edge of the PCB boast the aforementioned LEDs, but it ultimately feels like Palit’s implementation isn’t as refined as some of its other competitors. For instance, there's an LED strip at the edge, but there aren't enough of these to create a seamless light bar. Instead, you can clearly make out each individual LED, which makes for a less than desirable look. 

Nevertheless, you can customize the lighting using Palit’s ThunderMaster utility, or set the lights to change according to the GPU temperature. However, the lighting effects still feel rather rudimentary compared to the competition, and they lack some of the subtlety evinced in the other cards, such as small LED cutouts built into the shroud itself.

The build quality of the card also feels somewhat lacking (still, it’s nothing you should worry too much about), which isn’t helped by the fact that this is possibly the thickest card in this shootout at 58mm thick. You’ll require the better part of three slots to install it, although the same goes for most of the competition.

 

But even if the GameRock Premium Edition is not the most stunning card to look at, there’s a nice focus on performance here. For instance, the card comes with pretty aggressive factory overclocks, to the tune of a 1,594MHz base clock and 1,708MHz boost clock in OC mode. In comparison, the regular GameRock ships with a 1,518MHz base clock.

You also get dual onboard BIOS, which can be useful in recovering from failed overclocks. Both of these are also programmed with different clock speeds – BIOS 1 for OC mode and BIOS 2 for the standard speeds – so it can double up as a way to switch modes without having to download the ThunderMaster utility.

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

The GameRock Premium Edition card is equipped with a 12+2-phase power design, and is powered by two 8-pin power connectors. It’s cooled by four heat pipes, which whisk heat away from the GPU via a copper baseplate that is in direct contact with it. In addition, thermal pads help interface between the memory chips, VRM circuitry, and the heat sink.

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

Finally, the honeycomb bracket at the rear supposedly helps improve airflow out the back of the card. This is an open-air cooler that still dumps heat predominantly in the case, but the extra perforations may help with heat dissipation.

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GameRock Premium Edition

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