Palit's GeForce GTX 680 JetStream uses a custom triple fan cooler and a custom PCB design. It looks like both have been optimized for cost reduction, which enables the company to offer the card at the same price as the reference design.
Thanks to an overclock of 80 MHz out of the box, we see an about 5% performance increase over the NVIDIA reference design. Usually higher clocks mean higher power consumption, not so with the Palit GTX 680 JetStream. In our testing the card consumes about 10 Watts less under load than the NVIDIA reference design which is running slower clocks. This is evidence that Palit made the right choices when redesigning the PCB of the GTX 680.
Palit's excellent fan profile that seems to be carefully matched to the requirements of the card and the capabilities of the cooler provides great noise levels. In idle the card is actually one of the quietest cards I ever reviewed. Under load the card is much quieter than the reference design, too. Palit's choice of triple fan, 2.5 slot design certainly paid off in this area. If you choose to use this card in an SLI system, ensure you have enough space between slots.
Overall the Palit GTX 680 JetStream is a solid improvement over NVIDIA's reference design. Since it comes at no price increased compared to stock cards, I can easily recommend this card to all users who are looking for a GTX 680, yet are not willing to spend too much on custom overclocked versions.