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 as such I have to recommend it for the power user. The Classy was great this card is amazing!!
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 as such I have to recommend it for the power user. The Classy was great this card is amazing!!
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