When comparing EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 vs Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition, 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 EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 is ranked 12th. 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
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Pros
Pro Great noise levels, stays quiet during operation
EVGA has used the ACX 3.0 cooler on a number of their graphics cards and it is widely known for its low noise production. The GTX 1070 SC Gaming is no exception. In idle situations, the fans aren't active and thus the graphics card is silent. The ACX 3.0 cooler user passive cooling (without spinning of the fans) for temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius.
When using the card in a more intensive full load situation, maximum sound production measured was 38 decibels (A), which is a great result. The reference cooler of the GTX 1070 is also fairly quiet at 40 dBA - the difference here is less noticeable. There was also no noticeable coil whine (an undesirable high-pitched sound).
Pro Overclocks really well
The EVGA GTX 1070 SC allows for further generous overclocking of the card, even though the card has already been somewhat overclocked in-factory. In this case, an extra increase of 120 MHz was achieved without any major issues, for a total of 1715 MHz compared to the reference 1506 MHz. This resulted in an even higher performance, with 18224 3DMark Firestrike points compared to the non-overclocked SC version with 16680 points, a 9.25% increase.
Pro 3 Year Warranty
Pro Slightly higher performance than the Founders Edition
The GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 features a slightly higher clock speed of 1594 MHz, which is a 6% increase compared to the Founders Edition. This results in a slightly better performance, although the difference isn't really noticeable in most situations. In Rise of the Tomb Raider for example, the GTX 1070 SC achieves an average FPS of 111 in 1080p resolution with maximum settings, compared to the FE's 108 frames per second.
The results are more impressive in DOOM, where the overclocked EVGA card manages to achieve an average of 156 FPS (1080p), which is a 10% improvement over the Founders Edition's 142 frames per second.
Testing Hitman at 1080p shows a subtle difference: 88 FPS for the EVGA GTX 1070 SC while the reference FE card achieves 86 frames per second. When gaming in 1440p or 4K, the difference is slightly higher with 69 vs 65 FPS and 40 vs 37 FPS respectively.
Pro Low operating temperatures prevent throttling
The ACX 3.0 cooler used on the GTX 1070 SC Gaming offers slightly better temperatures compared to the reference cooler used on the Founders Edition. In idle, the GPU heats up to a maximum of 37 degrees Celsius. This is actually an increase of seven degrees compared to the Founders Edition, but the fans of the SC version don't spin up at all under 60 degrees and are thus passive. If preferred, you can adjust this with the included software.
Under load, the EVGA SC reaches a maximum of 72 degrees Celsius, which is a minor improvement over the 76 degrees of the reference GTX 1070. Throttling never occurs with the EVGA GTX 1070 SC ACX 3.0. Throttling occurs when temperatures of around 80° C are reached, in which case the graphics card will clock itself down in order to remain cool, effectively sacrificing performance.
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.
Cons
Con VRM area is a hotspot on the card
While a backplate will make your graphics card more durable, it can trap heat in some areas. On this EVGA GTX 1070, the backplate traps heat around the VRM area - which can warm up to 96 degrees Celsius when at 100% (as seen here).
Con Expensive
The price tag of the EVGA SC Gaming ACX 3.0 is higher than most other (significantly) overclocked GTX 1070 cards with a custom cooling solution.
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.