Wednesday, July 1st 2015
EVGA Unveils the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified ACX 2.0+
EVGA unveiled the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified ACX 2.0+ graphics card (model: 06G-P4-4998). Positioned a notch below the GTX 980 Ti Classified Kingpin Edition, and one above the GTX 980 Ti Hybrid, the card will be EVGA's fastest GTX 980 Ti, until the Classified Kingpin Edition starts selling. It offers factory overclocked speeds of 1190 MHz core, 1291 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 7.00 GHz memory; compared to reference clocks of 1000 MHz core and 1076 MHz GPU Boost.
The card features EVGA's biggest and tallest ACX 2.0+ air-cooling solution, which is 2 slots thick, but a good inch and a half taller than the reference card. It features a large dual fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of large fans. The PCB features a 14+3 phase VRM that draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The card comes with a pre-installed back-plate. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2 and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI connectors. Other features include dual-BIOS and EVGA EV-Bot module support. Available now, the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified ACX 2.0+ is priced at US $700.
The card features EVGA's biggest and tallest ACX 2.0+ air-cooling solution, which is 2 slots thick, but a good inch and a half taller than the reference card. It features a large dual fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of large fans. The PCB features a 14+3 phase VRM that draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The card comes with a pre-installed back-plate. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2 and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI connectors. Other features include dual-BIOS and EVGA EV-Bot module support. Available now, the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified ACX 2.0+ is priced at US $700.
32 Comments on EVGA Unveils the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified ACX 2.0+
Also - water block are really required here. And usually custom bios for super speeds unless the TDP limiter is relaxed...
And just for shits 'n' giggles, the LN2 HOF has a toggle switch to disable all Nvidia protections. OcUK said they will stock it but it has NO guarantee!! lol.
With all GM2XX GPUs, the limit is cooling. It is not a linear relationship where adding and power phases, voltage etc help scaling. These will do nothing at all.
No magic BIOS will increase overclocks and two cards with same week GPU, perhaps even same wafer will perform and scale near identically. The limit for all TI's is around 1500MHz. That has everything to do with the GPU layout/design and the target node. For instance running VID1.26V to pass 1555MHz where 1.19V passes 1526MHz speaks directly to this. Want to clean out the signal, then you need lower temps. Not 50, 40 or 30'C but around 10 to 15'C max load. Then you will see the GPU go to 1600MHz to 1620MHz game stable.
Remember that from air cooling to LN2 is only 600MHz at most (at least at present) which is a vary narrow window. That last 200MHz needs you to go down from -80'C to -130'C for instance and hold it there even under load. That is not a linear relationship and the cap for these GPUs is around 2100MHz.
So be it a 6, 8 or 14 phase PWM. It makes no difference at all for water and air cooling.
All we can do is hope for a high bin GPU if you care about that sort of thing. Perhaps even a card with Samsung memory so you can comfortably go over the 2GHz mark.
Fiji is also a behemoth. The chip is huge. The PCB is smaller because of the HBM but don't confuse the HBM technology with a small die.
Another fact of note is that the Fury X probably has more potential to improve with driver updates.
Both overclocked, no added voltage. TPU review
Or one where the Fury X beats the stock 980ti (Guru 3D). Notice the out of the box performance of the custom card. As far as the reviews go - AMD won't allow custom Fury X cards.
Sure, the Fury X wins at some titles but the reviews (or is it mass conspiracy) all point to 980ti being the better card because it's allowed to be 'pimped' by the AIB's. If Fury X wins/draws/loses (really depends on reviews) it's close with a stock 980ti. But add the 20% a lot of cards get (1400+ boost) and it's clear what the better gaming choice is.
But like I said, feel free to buy Fury X.
As for the driver argument - sure, it'll get better but we know Nvidia can up the game too. Please don't label me a fan boy - too old for that and I'll buy what suits my needs. I'm unhappy with Fury X's limited hardware potential, i.e - no custom versions.
As to being a fanboy, i actually planned on buying a Fury X for my upgrade. Like @the54thvoid I too am way too old for that immature BS. Then when I saw who the winner was (it doesn't matter if the 980Ti is only marginally the winner, it's still the winner), I was going to get the 980Ti. I have now decided to sit by and wait the next generation from each camp.
This allows me to neutrally observe which card is better. It might offend some people, but that's the fact. However, does it matter? Nope, not at all, because they are both good cards and both more than most people need.
One point that you might not be considering is that many people don't overclock their cards. I for one am through with overclocking and run all stock rigs these days so your 20% boost doesn't apply to me or many others for that matter.