Palit has recently released a refreshed model for their GeForce RTX 2080 Super lineup, the Gaming Pro OC. Unlike the dual-fan GameRock variants that have been on the market since launch, the RTX 2080 Super Gaming Pro OC features three fans and a more elongated design that trades height for length, which could improve compatibility with some cases. With 1845 MHz rated boost, GPU frequency is similar to other GameRock variants; the biggest change here seems to be the new cooler, and possibly some under the hood adjustments to the PCB.

When averaged over our test suite at 1440p resolution, we see the Palit RTX 2080 Super Gaming Pro OC just 1% ahead of the NVIDIA Founders Edition reference—a higher factory overclock would have helped here. This makes the card 6% faster than the RTX 2080 non-Super and 15% slower than the RTX 2080 Ti. AMD's fastest, the Radeon VII, is over 15% slower, and the RX 5700 XT achieves 20% lower performance. The GeForce RTX 2080 Super is an excellent card for 1440p gaming, delivering well over 60 FPS in many titles. It can also handle 4K gaming at 60 FPS if you are willing to sacrifice some details settings (depending on the game).

As mentioned before, Palit uses a triple-slot, triple-fan cooler on their Gaming Pro OC. It reaches solid thermal and noise levels that sit roughly in the middle of the other RTX 2080 Super cards we've tested before: 75°C on the GPU at 35 dBA noise output. Now, there are of course (more expensive) cards that have better results in one or the other, but the differences are fairly small. Idle noise levels are perfect because Palit's card includes the idle-fan-stop feature, which shuts off the card's fans completely in idle, productivity, and light gaming. A backplate is included, too. While it is made from plastic (for cost optimization), I'm perfectly fine with that as the thermal differences between a plastic and metal backplate are minimal.

Surprisingly, Palit chose to use the same board power limit as on the Founders Edition, which is unexpected since a higher power limit unlocks more performance because the card can boost higher for longer and does not hit the power limit all the time. While such a power limit increase obviously increases power draw and heat output, I'm confident that the cooler could have handled it. Normally, you're still able to manually increase the power in OC software, up to a certain limit. Palit disabled that, which means their card might not be the best choice for people who want to focus on serious overclocking.

The power limiter generally affects overclocking a bit more than on other cards (which have higher power limits). Since the card is always running in its power limit, it's impossible to eke out the last few MHz, because you can no longer dial in a specific clock frequency. For the typical user this shouldn't be a dealbreaker, though, as the differences are a few percent at best; we still gained 5.7% real-life performance after overclocking.

Like all other NVIDIA RTX cards, the RTX 2080 Super includes support for raytracing hardware acceleration. With only a few titles so far, I'm not sure if it's the most important technology to have today, but I am convinced that with their close ties to developers, NVIDIA will do everything they can to push this technology forward, which will ultimately result in an improvement of fidelity in games. Console makers Sony and Microsoft are also working on raytracing for their next-gen hardware, which will definitely help adoption rates, too. The RTX 2080 Super has additional RT cores and higher performance overall, which will help cushion the performance hit from raytracing.

With a price of around $720, the Palit RTX 2080 Super Gaming Pro OC is competitively priced, just $20 above NVIDIA MSRP. Yes, there are cheaper cards, but these have weaker coolers or are much noisier. I think the closest noteworthy competitors to the Gaming Pro OC are the MSI Gaming Trio at $737 and the EVGA RTX 2080 Super Black at $700. Overall, if you're looking for a decent RTX 2080 Super card, the Palit RTX 2080 Super Gaming Pro OC should definitely be on your list.