Unboxing & Review: Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition

Performance Test

Test Rig Configuration
CPU Cooler	Raijintek Triton 240
CPU	Intel Core i7 4790K @4.6GHz
Motherboard	ASUS Maximus Hero VII
Memory	G.Skill TridentX 2400MHz
Primary Hard Drive	Crucial M500 120GB
Power Supply	Be Quiet! Straight Power 10 600W
Chassis	Vector Bench case

We mounted the GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition on our test bench as above and each and every benchmark is conducted in a room of about 30C° ambient temperature.

Performance 
We ran a few graphically demanding games and synthetic benchmarks in our possession on a selected settings at 1080p, which is considered as high for much of our test as usual.The final result of each benchmark is presented in the form of the graph below:

Overclocking

We ran the same graphically demanding games and synthetic benchmark on 1080p with the highest achievable clock speed for both its memory and GPU that is stable enough to be able to complete each benchmark with the following values:

That isn’t much due to the card has been highly overclocked by Palit, but we managed to hit a beefy 2123MHz GPU clock speed on boost during our benchmark session. 

Temperature

Temperature wise, the GameRock cooler is doing its job very well as we’ve observed a very decent temperature record of 35°C during idle and 68°C on load while running on default clock speed when the card is stressed with the FurMark burn-in test for an hour. Bumping up the GPU core clock with an extra 248MHz results in a higher but comfortable temperature of 72°C for the FurMark burn-in test.  

Verdict
With the GTX 1070 Founders Edition already owning both the GTX Titan X and GTX 980Ti in terms of performance, the Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock is what we will describe as the GTX 1070 on steroid. While BIOS 1 is already strong enough to deliver a beefy 2026MHz boost clock, it’s overclocking capability is pretty much at its limit as we’re only able to give it a very limited 70MHz boost on the GPU clock. A slightly higher performance can be achieved with BIOS 2, to a whopping 2123MHz with minimal effort. As the long going Green Light program that puts a limit on the overvoltage is limiting us to go any further on the GPU clock, a custom BIOS from the enthusiasts community that is capable of further unlocking the capability of the GTX 1070 is something that we would love to see in the coming future.

The cooling performance is just perfect as overheating is something that you would never experience with the cooler for GameRock series graphics card, not in a million years. Leaving the fans to run on auto is never an issue as the highest recorded temperature on load is 68°C on default and 72°C after overclocked. It can do even better with the fans running at 100% without sacrificing too much on the acoustics, all thanks to the TurboFan design and the ultra-thick heatsink.

The Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Standard Edition and Premium Editon comes at the price of RM2099 and RM3280 respectively, still pricey to most but definitely a very good deal that’s worth going for – it performs better than the GTX 1070 Founders Edition by default, comes with a way much better cooling performance, and a lot more features that a Founders Edition card couldn’t offer.

Pros

• Combination of both aesthetics and solid build quality
• Goes on par or better than both GTX 980Ti and GTX Titan X with ease
• Dual BIOS feature allows user to play safe with custom BIOS
• Good overclocking headroom on BIOS 2 
• Low power requirement
• Reasonable price for the build quality and performance that it can deliver

Cons

• BIOS 1 has limited overclocking headroom due to its already high GPU Clock and Memory Clock
• Not easy to match with themed build that is not white and blue
• It takes up to 2.5 slot, which is not an ideal choice for SLI if you’re using a mATX form factor motherboard 
• ThunderMaster software GUI needs some improvement – the blue is overwhelming