Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GameRock OC
September 24th, 2020Type
Graphics CardPrice
$1699The Performance BIOS is undoubtedly the best way to push the Palit GeForce RTX 3090 Game Rock to its full potential. However, there is a rather noticeable downside: noise. If you regularly play games with headphones, preferably of the circumaural, closed-back variety, then this issue might not affect your sessions in the least. On the other hand, if you don't wish to wear headphones all the time, this graphics card's noise under full load is such that it makes gameplay immersion quite a bit harder.
Fortunately, Palit did release a 'Silent BIOS' which significantly improves on this very aspect, while also lowering the TDP from 420W to 370W. But how much performance are you going to lose by opting to keep this active instead of the 'performance BIOS'? Let's find out.
Wolfenstein Youngblood
Metro Exodus
Far Cry New Dawn
Batman Arkham Knight
Tom Clancy's The Division 2
Assassin's Creed Origins
Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Borderlands 3
Horizon Zero Dawn
Overall, the tradeoff is definitely worth it in my opinion. While I didn't have access to a professional phonometer to measure the difference in noise, I can attest that it is substantial, and you're
It's worth noting that the biggest difference you'll encounter by switching to the Silent BIOS of the Palit RTX 3090 is in the 1% percentile for some reason. Still, though, it remains negligible in most cases, and even more so if you remove Batman Arkham Knight, once again a massive outlier, from the equation. Without it, the average FPS difference would shrink down to just -2.8%, and the 1% percentile even more so (-7.3%).
| Game | Avg FPS difference compared to Performance BIOS | 1% percentile difference compared to Performance BIOS |
| Wolfenstein: Youngblood | -4.4% | -14% |
| Metro Exodus | -2.4% | -3.8% |
| Far Cry New Dawn | -2.1% | -1.3% |
| Batman Arkham Knight | -33.8% | -45.6% |
| Tom Clancy's The Division 2 | -2.6% | -29.8% |
| Assassin's Creed Origins | -3.2% | -2.5% |
| Ghost Recon Breakpoint | -3.2% | -6.6% |
| Borderlands 3 | -2.4% | -0.3% |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | -2.1% | -0.6% |
| Average | -6.2% | -11.6% |
Sadly, the unit tested was a terrible overclocker, which is why this review doesn't include any overclocking benchmarks. This doesn't really say much about the general overclocking capabilities of the Palit RTX 3090 GameRock OC, of course, as any brand and model GPU could yield a so-called 'overclocking dud'. It's just the luck of the lottery, after all.
Review unit provided by the manufacturer.
You can find additional information about our standard review process and ethics policy here.
The Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GameRock OC is one of the best choices when it comes to price/performance ratio if you've decided to spend the cash on NVIDIA's latest flagship and go all-in with uncompromised PC gaming. It would be wiser to wait for the rumored RTX 3080Ti, of course, or even to just purchase an overclocked RTX 3080, but that is another topic entirely. If you're an enthusiast with the chance to get this card, both in terms of availability and affordability, you probably should. Those upgrading from a Palit RTX 2080Ti will feel a huge performance uplift, that's for sure.
- Incredible power that allows to fully take advantage of the HDMI 2.1 specs for 4K@100+FPS gaming on PC
- Aesthetically prettier than competitors with its diamond-like design
- Compared to other RTX 3090 models from other brands, it is slightly cheaper
Pros
- The Performance BIOS is just too noisy
Cons
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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