Palit GTX 1070 Ti Super JetStream 8 GB Review 5

Palit GTX 1070 Ti Super JetStream 8 GB Review

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Value and Conclusion

  • The Palit GTX 1080 Ti Super JetStream is currently listed online for €562, which we converted to US$530 for the comparisons.
  • Very quiet
  • Greatly improved cooler over the Founders Edition - no throttling
  • Fans turn off in idle
  • Beats the Radeon RX Vega 56
  • Good performance gains over the GTX 1070
  • Great overclocking potential, easy to outperform GTX 1080
  • Voltage tuning and measurement points
  • Dual BIOS
  • Adjustable RGB lighting
  • Backplate included
  • HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4
  • High price
  • No factory-overclocked models allowed by NVIDIA
  • Additional 6-pin power input not needed
  • Triple-slot cooler might not fit all cases
  • Not available in the US
  • Older GDDR5 memory
  • No analog (VGA) support
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is probably the final graphics card released on the 18-month old "Pascal" architecture. Just like the GTX 1080, it is based on the GP104 silicon, with a negligibly reduced shader count, but paired with slower GDDR5 memory instead of GDDR5X. The memory change makes sense as GDDR5X seems to be available in limited quantities only and NVIDIA surely wants to sell more cards. GTX 1070 performance is beat by AMD's Vega offerings, though, which is why they came up with the GTX 1070 Ti.

Palit's GTX 1070 Ti Gaming is a custom-design, though reference-clocked - just like all other GTX 1070 Tis out there, NVIDIA doesn't allow board partners to overclock their cards out of the box, probably to protect the GTX 1080. Small performance differences are still to be expected, due to slightly different boost ranges, power limits, and thermals. When looking at averages, we see a tiny lead, below 1%; although only of academic value, it is there. Compared to the GTX 1080, the GTX 1070 Ti is 5% slower, which makes it 13% faster than the GTX 1070. AMD's Vega 56 is 6% behind and Vega 64 is 4% faster. The mighty GTX 1080 Ti takes the lead with 36% faster performance. These results make the GTX 1070 Ti an excellent choice for maximum-detail 1440p gaming, or 1080p when using a high-refresh-rate monitor.

Palit is using a large triple-slot cooler on their card, which provides plenty of cooling to keep the card cool. Temperatures are the lowest we've seen from a GTX 1070 Ti, but the differences are not huge (with the exception of the Founders Edition, which does throttle). Fan noise is good too, with only 30 dBA, but other custom designs reach similar noise levels. I'm also happy to report that Palit included the crucial idle-fan-off feature, which turns off the fans completely during idle, Internet browsing, and light gaming.

Power efficiency of Pascal is amazing, and GTX 1070 Ti is no exception. Performance per watt is similar to the GTX 1080 Ti, a bit lower than the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, by roughly 10%. It's still heaps more efficient than AMD Vega. Palit made some changes to the VRM circuitry and added an additional 6-pin power input, which has slightly reduced power efficiency overall, by small amounts barely worth mentioning. What's worth mentioning, though, is that the additional power input is completely unnecessary. The maximum manually adjusted TDP value is 217 W (like on FE), something an 8-pin connector can handle just fine (150 W + 75 W from the PCIe slot). Palit has added voltage measurement and tuning points on their card, so it's possible to exceed that limit, but the better approach would have been to set a higher power limit in the BIOS, like MSI does, for example.

Early reports claimed that overclocking is locked on the GTX 1070 Ti. This is absolutely not true. All our samples overclock very well and reach clocks above 2 GHz after boost, easily beating GTX 1080 performance. As mentioned before, board partners are not allowed to include out of the box overclocks with their cards, which makes things difficult for less experienced people, or people who just don't want to waste time overclocking. Overclocking has become quite easy these days, so don't worry and give it a try.

Palit's GTX 1070 Ti Super JetStream is listed in Europe for €562, which is way too expensive when you consider that the cheapest GTX 1080 costs €500 and the premium ones retail for €540 - and they include an overclock out of the box. Palit's product positioning is also a bit curious. They have a non-Super JetStream in their lineup, too, which is exactly the same card with the same specs. The only difference is that, according to Palit, the Super JetStream receives a burn-in test at 1708 MHz - a frequency every GTX 1070 Ti should be able to handle with ease given the clocks we're seeing in our reviews. A more realistic price point would be in the $450-$480 range, maybe $500 if we consider the dual BIOS and voltage tuning points, but anything beyond that is just too expensive.
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Apr 19th, 2024 21:41 EDT change timezone

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