Palit GTX980 Super Jetstream OC Review

As evidenced by reader adoption on the busy Kitguru Facebook page, this has been one of the most successful launches for Nvidia. Enthusiast users have welcomed Nvidia's focus on reducing power consumption, heat output and noise levels.

The Palit GTX980 Super JetStream is the third sample in our labs since the reference card launch back on September 19th. Out of the box this is the fastest of all cards we have analysed. Palit do tend to push core clock speeds higher than many of the other partners, and considering the ample headroom on the Maxwell core – we say, why not?

First impressions are positive. The dramatic, metallic red coloured cooling shroud attracts the eye, and the angled large 10cm fans look the business. The black PCB and substantial backplate help enhance the overall appearance.

In operation this card delivers class leading frame rates, and it does so without creating a racket, or by emitting a lot of heat into the case.

Overclocking headroom on the Maxwell GM204 core has proven to be excellent. The default ‘out of the box' core clock speed of the Palit GTX980 Super JetStream is set at 1,203mhz, and with some manual tweaking we were able to push this to 1,319mhz core/1,420mhz Boost. At these speeds performance levels step up another notch, and some of the more demanding engines will run noticeably smoother at higher resolutions.

Sadly the GTX980 will still need partnered up in SLi to drive super smooth frame rates at 4K resolutions, but it will be some time in the future before a single GPU can handle 3,840 x 2,160 with the latest Direct X 11 engines.

Right now the biggest competitor facing the Palit GTX980 Super JetStream is the Asus GTX980 Strix OC. The Asus card is equipped with a slightly better cooler, and noise levels are also a little lower. While the Palit card is clocked a little higher out of the box, the Asus sample we reviewed was able to overclock to higher core clock speeds of 1,380mhz core/1,481mhz boost. All cards will be slightly different, but we can only report on what we receive and test.

While we feel the ASUS GTX980 Strix OC is the slightly better overall card, it is around £35 more expensive than the Palit card we reviewed today, priced at £509.99 inc vat.

You can order the Palit GTX980 Super JetStream from Overclockers UK, for £473.99 HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• fastest GTX980 we have tested.
• GDDR5 memory also receives a little clock boost.
• fantastic looking design.
• very quiet.
• very high build quality, including backplate.
• 4GB of GDDR5 memory.
• 7c cooler than reference GTX980 under load.

Cons:

• the reference GTX980 is excellent and is much cheaper.
• still need two of them for smooth 4k gaming.

Kitguru says: The fastest ‘out of the box' GTX980 we have reviewed today. Looks fantastic, is quiet and overclocks very well.

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