When comparing Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition vs ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG STRIX, the Slant community recommends Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition for most people. In the question“What are the best GTX 1070 cards?” Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition is ranked 1st while ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG STRIX is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition is:
Palit GeForce GTX Premium Edition is one of the best GTX 1070 cards performance-wise. It scored a 3DMark Firestrike Score of 16575, which is one of the highest scores as far as GTX 1070 cards go. But this should come as no surprise since the Premium Edition of GameRock has slightly higher clock speeds than what may be found in other GTX 1070 cards (especially the Founders Edition).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great performance
Palit GeForce GTX Premium Edition is one of the best GTX 1070 cards performance-wise. It scored a 3DMark Firestrike Score of 16575, which is one of the highest scores as far as GTX 1070 cards go. But this should come as no surprise since the Premium Edition of GameRock has slightly higher clock speeds than what may be found in other GTX 1070 cards (especially the Founders Edition).
Pro Relatively low noise levels for the massive fans it has
The GTX 1070 GameRock's cooler not only handles heat well, but noise production is very low, especially compared to other high-end cards. With a decibel rating of 29.6 in idle, the card remains essentially silent - this is because the fans don't spin up until a temperature of 50° C has been reached.
During full load, the fans can barely be heard with a noise production of 32.4 decibels. With these results, the Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock is among the best in terms of sound production. For comparison: the Founders Edition produces 30.4 and 35.3 decibels in idle and under full load, respectively.
Pro Can have a second BIOS for higher speeds
The GameRock Premium Edition has a two-position slider which can be used to activate a second BIOS in case you want to try a custom BIOS for increased speeds.
Pro Great cooling solution
One of the main reasons that the GameRock Premium Edition is able to clock way past the reference card, is the cooler.
Measuring at 285mm long, 133mm wide and 46mm high it's simply massive (even bigger than the backplate). It has two 10cm fans which stop at around 55°C. The two fans sit on top of two heatsinks (most GTX 1070 cards have just one) joined by thick heatpipes.
Pro Great energy to performance ratio
The increased performance pushes this card from the standard 150W for GTX 1070's to 170W for this version. However, that is still more energy efficient than EVGA's most powerful GTX1070 (215W), which doesn't produce as much base & memory clock speeds.
Pro Very high clock speed increases
The Premium Edition of the Palit Geforce 1070 GameRock has a 1,671 MHz clock speed with a guaranteed boost speed of 1,873 MHz. That is a clear difference to the 1,506 MHz / 1,683 MHz of the Founders Edition. Palit also increased effective memory speeds from 8k MHz to 8.5k MHz (2x 4,250 MHz) . This manufacturer's main selling point is the performance they get out of NVIDIA cards and in this case as well they pushed the GTX 1070 to the limits of its design.
Pro Best cooling system of any GTX 1070
The Strix cooler Asus uses performs extremely well. Under light loads, the maximum temperature measured was 37 degrees Celsius. This is actually a bit on the higher side, but the cooler's fans don't turn on until the temperature reaches 60° C. This temperature threshold can be adjusted in the software if you wish. The cooler really shows its worth when looking at results under full load. The GTX 1070 ROG Strix achieves a maximum temperature of only 65 degrees Celsius, a very impressive feat. For comparison: a GTX 1070 Founders Edition heats up to 76 degrees Celsius, and the next coolest GTX 1070 is the Palit Premium edition which measures in at 70 degrees Celsius.
Better temperatures not only result in increased lifespan of the graphics card, but it also ensures throttling doesn't occur. Throttling is the process where the graphics card clocks itself down in order to remain cool, effectively sacrificing performance. The GTX 1070 is generally pretty good when it comes to avoiding throttling, but great cooling systems reduce the changes of throttling even more.
Pro Ability to add two extra PWM fans
On the back of the STRIX card, there are two available PWM-connectors. If you attach additional fans to the back of the graphics card, they will regulate speed via PWM in addition to the STRIX cooler itself. This is a unique feature among GTX 1070 cards, which can help cool down the graphics card to prevent overheating or throttling (which could - in theory at least - allow for more overclocking).
Pro Easy to overclock
This GPU is easily overclockable to over 2GHz through Asus software.
Pro Features adjustable RGB lightning
The exterior of the ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG STRIX features some RGB lights and you can adjust the color of these lights via the included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind.
Pro Very quiet operation
When they don't need to, the fans on the Asus GTX 1070 ROG STRIX won't spin at all and are thus completely inaudible: the card remains passive below 60 degrees Celsius. Under full load, a maximum sound production of 39 decibels (A) was measured. A reference GTX 1070 Founders Edition card also performs very well in this aspect however with 40 dBA, which means the difference isn't quite as extensive as with other GPU's.
Cons
Con Only available in Europe
Palit graphic cards are only sold in Europe. In the USA, some of these graphics cards are sold by PNY but unfortunately, the GTX 1070 Gamerock Premium Edition is not one of those.
Con Takes up a lot of space
Because of the big fans and large backplate on this card, the Palit Geforce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition takes up two and a half slots. (Or in other words, effectively needs 3 available slots.)
Con The aesthetics are not very pleasing
The blue and white color scheme that the Gamerock Premium Edition has is not that visually pleasing. The retro-looking logo plastered in the back is not that pretty, either.
Con Factory overclock isn't noticeable in practice
Although ASUS has increased the base clock speed of the GPU by 1.66% from 1506 to 1531 MHz, this higher clock speed only results in a negligible performance increases in gaming situations. Other GTX 1070 chips have higher clocks, which allow for better performance.
Con Only 2 DisplayPorts
To be more VR-friendly, Asus removed one of the DisplayPorts in favor of an additional HDMI port (both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require 2 HDMI ports).