8Pack Testing EVGA GTYX980 Kingpin Edition

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 19:16

I was very lucky to get my hands on a Kingpin Edition GTX 980 by EVGA a week or so ago so thought I would share some thoughts and results with you guys on the forum. After the amazing results I saw with Classified I could not wait to overclock this card.

Unlike Classified where I went straight to extreme cooling I will start with Air and the stock cooler on this one.

On first inspection of the card we have great build quality. The cooler is very similar to Classified in looks but the card now comes with a back plate as standard. No doubt in my mind this is not only helping with rigidity of the PCB but also overall cooling with the card. This cooler ran around 2C cooler than any other 980 I have tested with similar voltages and ambient temperatures. This for sure is a win as EVGA have taken a great formula from the Classified and developed it even further. Also contributing to the cool running of this card is a different PWM design now supporting two eight pin and one six pin connector this meaning the VRM on the card is running cooler and the PCB too even at high loads and voltages. So far so good great design EVGA!!

Now lets look at some air cooling results at 18c ambient in room temps.

3D mark Fire strike Extreme Bench

Score 8144 on Air cooling, with EVGA 980 KPE at 1621 core 2268 mems.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4282539

3D mark Firestrike Bench

Score 16635 on Air cooling, with EVGA 980 KPE at 1621 core 2268 mems.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4282546

These scores are the best scores I have seen out of any GTX980 on air cooling and so are the overclocks. Over 1620 on core with over 2250 mems all on the stock cooler is absolutely crazy performance. Having produced these scores I checked our forum benching threads and see in fact they are the best 980 scores period on none extreme cooling so the KPE is showing other cards the door that are running on water too. This tells us that the binning of this card by EVGA is absolutely top notch and the selecting of components and PCB also.

Next I will try this card on Ln2 but so far so very good. Its the best performing and overclocking 980 out of the box I have seen and such I have to recommend it for the power user. The Classy was great this card is amazing!!

Gregster · 20 Mar 2015 at 19:18

Great scores and I am looking forward to seeing what you can achieve with the TX. I assume you will be benching one or more?

Geeman1979 · 20 Mar 2015 at 19:19

Probably already has

clone · 20 Mar 2015 at 20:00

Now should I upgrade my kingpin

JeffyB · 20 Mar 2015 at 20:03

Can you imagine the eye watering price a Titan X KPE would be?

clone · 20 Mar 2015 at 20:05

Aye would be nice to seen them do it though

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 22:52

JeffyB said:
Can you imagine the eye watering price a Titan X KPE would be?

No Custom PCB or PWM sadly for Titan X, Nvidia dont allow any board partner to make custom designs of Titan.

I actually don't have the card yet guys for LN2 but when I do I have EVGA E- Power board here in stock ready to give em some serious ragging. The problem with no custom PCB is the PWM solution NVIDIA employs simply cant handle volts. So each card to bench LN2 takes several hours of modding.

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 22:53

Gregster said:
Great scores and I am looking forward to seeing what you can achieve with the TX. I assume you will be benching one or more?

Yeah I will bench four way as always. One is slow for me now I like the challenge of five pots to control and keep different temperatures on each.

Gregster · 20 Mar 2015 at 22:55

8 Pack said:
Yeah I will bench four way as always. One is slow for me now I like the challenge of five pots to control.

I have a new found appreciation for LN2 after having a play myself with it. And I was just doing a 5960X and no GPU. Sure takes full concentration, so Kudos on that :cool:

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 22:58

Are u at Dagmars event in April?

He has been trying to sign me up!!! I think Titan X four way fully E Power modded will be what I will try to bench.

Gregster · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:00

8 Pack said:
Are u at Dagmars event in April?

He has been trying to sign me up!!! I think Titan X four way fully E Power modded will be what I will try to bench.

Yer I will be there and hope you will be too. You can show me how the big boys do it. I was thinking of videoing and interviewing as we go along.

Tonester0011 · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:02

Gregster said:
I have a new found appreciation for LN2 after having a play myself with it. And I was just doing a 5960X and no GPU. Sure takes full concentration, so Kudos on that

Always makes me laugh when people say it's easy.

'If i had the best clocking chips i could have got that WR, it's easy'

LOL! Yeah right!

Gregster · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:06

Tonester0011 said:
Always makes me laugh when people say it's easy.

'If i had the best clocking chips i could have got that WR, it's easy'

LOL! Yeah right!

The prep work alone is tough and then you are constantly keeping an eye on the temp too cold is a no no and the cold bug kicks in and too warm is a crash (or worse). I would love to see some of those people who claim that do it

setter · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:07

When you see it in vids, it's impressive. Not just the gpu clocking but cpu to go along with it. Id love to go to the meet were the MLG guys are discussing on the forum. Sounds like it would be a great few days. Unfortunately I never see any events like this over here.

Tonester0011 · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:08

Gregster said:
The prep work alone is tough and then you are constantly keeping an eye on the temp too cold is a no no and the cold bug kicks in and too warm is a crash (or worse). I would love to see some of those people who claim that do it

My German mate thinks it's easy, i should invite him to come to that event in April. What i tend to tell people though, it only looks easy because the person who's doing it is a ****ing professional!

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:10

It looks like I almost certainly will be there Greg. Yeah Video and interview will be no problem.

Correct all guys think its easy!! They do until they see me bench your correct. Some guys including Ace modder, Kimandsally and of course Hivizman from these forums have seen me bench. Hiviz having great experience himself and by no means is world record easy. 5 different components all needing different temps, different voiltages, different LN2 pouring rates cold bugs etc. Needs much practice for sure and a certain degree of skill too. Also you need to know what part of each bench pulls higher loads and lower loads again to keep a close range of temps. I bench four way alone get my own LN2 and everything so am literally buzzing around the place.

I will pretest everything before the event so I can do some single card stuff also but a big 4 way rig needs to be the main focus I think.

whyscotty · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:10

setter said:
When you see it in vids, it's impressive. Not just the gpu clocking but cpu to go along with it. Id love to go to the meet were the MLG guys are discussing on the forum. Sounds like it would be a great few days. Unfortunately I never see any events like this over here.

You could arrange one and we'll descend on you

8 Pack · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:19

whyscotty said:
You could arrange one and we'll descend on you

You attending Scotty??

whyscotty · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:28

Hoping to, just need permission from her who wears the trousers

Kaapstad · 20 Mar 2015 at 23:39

8 Pack said:
You attending Scotty??

I am looking forward to any benching/reviewing you can do with the Titan X as it would be great to include in the OPs of the Titan X owners thread !!!

Is there any chance of videos too.