Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock LE review (Page 25)

Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock LE review

Graphics cards 1049 Page 25 of 25 Published 2019-07-23 15:06 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and verdict

It is very nice to see Palit do some out of the box thinking. For them, this limited edition is pretty unique. And we have to agree. We do like the white look, the improved RGB LED that really offers a much more refined look in its animations. However, they stepped it up a notch in the build process. The 10+2 phase design, DrMOS as well as a dual BIOS are all pretty nice features to have really. In the end, though, all factory tweaked products will be roughly 2% faster and when applied with a manual tweak, roughly 9 to 10% faster compared to the reference product.

The graph above basically averages out a handful of games comparing the RTX 2080 Super reference towards the Palit RTX 2080 Super GameRock LE WGRP (with really great price? :-). I do have to state that the resolution there is Ultra HD, totally GPU bound you obviously will see the strength of the Super better. So yes, the Palit card on average is 2% faster. For RTX modes on + a bit of DLSS you likely will end up in the 2560x1440 region. So overall that's not bad. You also need to realize that NVIDIA shaved off a 100 bucks of the introduction price of that 'older' RTX 2080. So the Super models are cheaper overall, whether that is a founders/reference card or the AIB board partner cards.

Aesthetics

With a dark PCB and overall white design, the cooler once powered on just looks amazing with it's subtle RGB effect and animation. Really, the photos don't do the card real justice. That LED inclusion that has been done subtly and can be configured in any manner you prefer with included software, the choice is yours. While I always will remain skeptical about backplates (they potentially can trap heat and thus warm up the PCB) Palit does have proper vents there. The flip-side is that they can look better and can protect your PCB and components from damage and, well, they can look nice as they can have a certain aesthetic appeal. I have to admit, this is looking very nice but looks are always personal, of course. So in the end, on looks, you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality.

Cooling & Noise Levels

The card tops out at roughly 71 Degrees C while gaming. So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate as silent as the card stays at roughly 37 DBa measured under stress, we doubt you'll ever hear the card once mounted into a chassis. We've heard no noticeable coil whine. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS can make some coil-whine.

Overclocking

Anything and everything is regulated by NVIDIA these days. Speaking, in general, you can expect another 10% of extra perf out of both cards when you bump up the graphics memory and GPU a bit. That is, however, paired with an increased board power limiter and, as such, that will cost a bit more energy. Both traditional overclocking, as well as the OC Scanner functions, bring us close to that value. In retrospect though, you have to remember, that the 'older' RTX models could also be tweaked to 15~16 Gbps on that GDDR6 Micron memory. The new 2080 Super models have Samsung GDDR6 and it certainly is faster overall as well as tweaking. We could even hit 18 GHz, however, that was not stable. So we settled at 17.8 GHz (effective data-rate) and that is crazy fast y0!.

Concluding

NVIDIA has had a bit of a chat with their board partners on pricing, and Palit should be to offer a competitive price compared to other AIB products, the bad news is that the card will remain the premium Limited Edition model and as such will likely be priced like that. The RTX 2080S in this revision is positioned at 749 USD, and really should not be much higher in retail even with pimped up AIB cards. Not only did NVIDIA make the card faster, but they also made is cheaper as well. Our perspective obviously needs to be what NVIDIA puts on the table today, and we have to state that it didn't disappoint. The high-end/enthusiast bracket always has been in that 699 USD ballpark, and the RTX 2080 finally arrived at it. While that kind of cash still is a hell of lot 'o-money, the price does feel more 'right' compared to what NVIDIA did last year. This card offers good solid shader performance, and for a bit of fun and giggles, you get to play around with RTX/DLSS if you desire. While we can still argue DLSS and RTX you do need to realize that the industry is at a clipping point, hardware-based ray tracing is coming, whether that is NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. You probably still are paying a price premium to be that early adopter with a handful of games to actually test it on. But you can't blame NVIDIA for pioneering with technology. You can blame them for overcharging graphics cards though. And that has to be the conclusion for today, the current state of the Super lineup is much better then what happened last year. They refreshed the RTX 2080 to be faster and cheaper, and there's nothing wrong with that. Palit manages this product well. The PCB layout and component usage are good, the cooler I would qualify as excellent even. The factory tweak is however very small, I mean 30 MHz, come on. Tweaking wise the card did not disappoint though. The 2080 Super is plenty fast for any gaming up-to Ultra HD based on shading performance. With Raytracing enabled you'll be in the 1080p or 1440p range. The good news is that the card is TU104 based, and that means it is fitted with an NVlink slot, yep you could pair up two of these and go for SLI. However, given its track history, Multi-GPU is dying. Palit did things right, the product has silent cooling and comes with a really nice factory tweak. The white color (yeah I know white isn't a color) is prune to taste and looks that match your PC I guess, but the black PCB makes sure it'll look handsome in any DIY rig really. It's good to see a dual BIOS btw. Aside from limited availability due to the LE edition, and the premium price that will go along with is, we have to give Palit two thumbs up and hand out a recommended award.