Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

Currently, the Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 is available from Overclockers UK for £419.99 including free shipping. This is a very competitive price and slightly cheaper than the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1070 which costs £429.95. When you consider the mammoth cooling solution, this is one of the best value GTX 1070s on the market and it’s much cheaper than higher end models like the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1070 OC which retails for £499.99.

Overview

While certain individuals might criticise the Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070’s polarising colour scheme, you have to admire the company’s bravery for trying to introduce an exciting, innovative finish which evokes a strong reaction. Far too often AIB partners take the easy route and unleash bland colour schemes which struggle to distinguish the product from previous offerings. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite partial to a balanced red and black graphics card, but it’s important to acknowledge that some enthusiasts prefer to craft a custom-PC with a different combination of colours.

The graphics card’s white and blue finish is a sensible choice and contrasts really well. Not only that, the GameRock branding is implemented in a stylish yet subtle manner and enhances the GPU’s aesthetic appeal. It’s a little strange to see the Guitar Hero font used on a piece of hardware since you’re so accustomed to it being part of the iconic music series. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting addition and acts as a talking point especially since it’s boldly positioned on the sturdy black backplate. Palit has embedded RGB illumination which looks fantastic and each colour really has a gorgeous hue. Saying that, the lacklustre software and limited transitional effects could be improved.

The Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 utilises an 8-phase power delivery and DrMOS circuit design which provides exceptional reliability and lower thermal strain on the MOSFETs. Additionally, the dual-BIOS feature is a superb failsafe and ensures the product is running perfectly even when one of the BIOS chips develops a fault. To be perfectly clear, both BIOS chips have the same revision. When it comes to cooling, the Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 sports a humongous heatsink which works alongside 5 copper heat-pipes. This results in a hefty profile which spans 2.5 PCI-E slots. While the large cooling solution could cause issues in builds without much space, the build quality is remarkably high and makes the end-user feel like their initial investment was worthwhile. On another note, the updated cooling system is unbelievably quiet and revolves around two fans running at low RPM values. Honestly, this is the quietest graphics card I’ve encountered under load and the noise output only increases by a tiny amount once stressed.

Unfortunately, the overclocking process was frustrating and I could only achieve a tiny 13MHz increase on the core with an 114% power limit. Thankfully, the memory boosted much higher by 467MHz without any issues. When running various stress tests, the maximum boost clock went from 2025MHz to 2062.5MHz. Despite only having a tiny amount of overclocking headroom on the core, it’s possible to achieve a relatively good maximum boost. The Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 already ships with a hefty overclock compared to the Founders Editions so this isn’t a major surprise. Saying that, I would have liked to get closer to 2100MHz and expected more given the cooling hardware.

In terms of performance, the Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 consistently outclasses the GTX Titan X while being around £400 cheaper. Not only that, it’s able to output better frame-rates than one of the best GTX 980Ti aftermarket cards in most scenarios. Of course, it lingers behind the GTX 1080 but the deficit is smaller than you might expect given the huge price difference. In the coming months, I expect driver enhancements to extend the GTX 1070’s lead over Maxwell products which makes it a pretty solid choice. Granted, the GTX 980Ti’s cost is dropping at a rapid pace, but it’s evidently clear that the GTX 1070 will be the better option. Factory overclocked models like the Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 allow for very fluid frame-rates when using a high refresh 1920×1080 or 2560×1440 monitor. In theory, the graphics card can cope with 4K gaming at reduced settings although this current niche is better served with the GTX 1080. Overall, the performance is superb and it seems the GTX 1070 pulls away from the GTX 980Ti more when tackling DirectX 12 titles.

Pros

• Daring colour scheme
• Decent value for hardware enthusiasts
• Gorgeous RGB colours
• Exceptionally quiet
• Premium cooling solution
• Robust construction
• Superb packaging

Cons

• Limited core overclocking

Neutral

• 2.5 slot design may be problematic in some builds

“The Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 utilises an incredible cooling solution which relies on two hefty heatsinks and a gentle RPM fan curve. This provides a quiet gaming experience which doesn’t sacrifice on temperatures or performance.”

Palit GameRock Premium GTX 1070 Graphics Card Review

Thank you Palit for providing us with this review sample.