Help! deciding Which 980ti K|NGP|N

radeson

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Dec 20, 2014
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Hello, I am planning on ordering an EVGA 980ti Kingpin edition this week. The problem is they are selling 4 different BINs based on ASIC quality: 72+; 74+; 76+; and 80+.

I have read a lot of conflicting reports about ASIC quality and overclockability. I want to order the 80+ version because I want the best overclockability. I already have the waterblock on the way from EKWB and I plan on WC'ing right away.

Now my question is: Will I get a better overclock on water with a higher asic quality GPU? Is it worth spending 200 bucks more to get the 80+ ($1049) as opposed to the bottom tier ($849).


Suggestions please.....
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
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AFAIK the ASIC scores are only valid on LN2, water does not cool the GPU low enough for ASIC to matter. Also most of these cards wont go above 1550-1575 regardless of ASIC on water or air.

Also if go water would you sell me your ACX Kingpin copper cooler? I'm running SLI and need a better cooler on my top card than the aluminum ACX cooler :D
 

radeson

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Dec 20, 2014
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AFAIK the ASIC scores are only valid on LN2, water does not cool the GPU low enough for ASIC to matter. Also most of these cards wont go above 1550-1575 regardless of ASIC on water or air.

Also if go water would you sell me your ACX Kingpin copper cooler? I'm running SLI and need a better cooler on my top card than the aluminum ACX cooler :D

Thanks Bob for the reply. I hope you are right. Also, regarding the cooler. 95% sure that the cooler for the K|NGP|N will not fit on that card as the water block for the cards are completely different. Not positive I would sell it either, but maybe. We'll keep in touch...


Anyone else care to shed some light on my dilemma?
 
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radeson

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JoeRambo

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Actually before You spend that much of money on this card consider the following: the sweet spot for most 980 ti cards seems to be ~1440-1520. Even best cards don't go much beyond that on air/water. Is it really wise to gain 3-4% of extra performance at such high price?

Those cards are meant for extreme cooling, for average player, custom MSI or Asus/Gigabyte card on air, clocked @1440-1480 will serve the most needs.

SLI on water is the next step, cause you only gain cool card and low noise and maybe 80mhz more by water cooling single card.
 

daveybrat

Elite Member
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Jan 31, 2000
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You might as well just save some money and get the EVGA GTX 980Ti Classified edition. My buddy just got one and it's ASIC rating is 79%.

And just like the Kingpin model, it also has the 14+3 power phase as opposed to the 8+2 that the other Ti's use.
 

RaistlinZ

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Oct 15, 2001
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Waste of money, as a higher ASIC won't guarantee you any higher overclocks.
 

radeson

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Dec 20, 2014
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Thank you everybody for the informative posts. I really wish I woudve asked this question about a week ago as I already ordered the waterblock from EK. Im pretty sure it only fits the K|nGP|N. So now that I spent $188 dollars on a Waterblock for it I might as well get one. LOL at least this is my excuse. Honestly deep down inside i pry just want bragging rights that I got a kingpin.
IDK I wasnt planning on ordering my first card till next week, so I guess its time for more research.

Again. Thank you all
 

Xed

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2003
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Higher ASIC for Maxwell mainly helps with memory overclocking especially under ln2. The cards do not behave the same as Kepler did regarding voltage.

Kingpin himself pretty much says go for the 72% on air or water. He's made plenty of posts about it on the Evga/his own/various other forums.
 

guskline

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2006
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radeson: I'll try to give some perspective as my first rig below is somewhat similar to yours as far as cpu/mb/ram.

Both of my rigs below are custom water cooled for both the cpu and gpu/gps.

In my 5960x rig I have 3 XSPC RX480 rads (Overkill, I know!) with a 5960x at 4.4Ghz using an EK Supremacy Evo block and a single EVGA GTX980TI SC with an EK TitanX block. I previously had 2 Sapphire Tri-X R9290s with EK blocks in it.

You obviously have 4 R9290s in your sig so you have experience with multi-gpu setups.

I notice that with the same rad setup, in synthetic benchmarks, my dual 290s beat the 980TI but not by a ton. Your Kingpin is clocked faster (my 980TI is 1102 stock). Under water I can push my base clock to nearly 1300 without artifacting but most times just leave it at stock.

One of the criticisms made of buying a Kingpin 980TI is why put it under water when you have such a huge hunk of copper on the air cooler?

I faced a similar criticism when removing the Tri-X air coolers on my 290s for water.

Since you already bought the KingPin AND waterblock you either return for a refund or build away.

I would venture to say you will get better OCing than my EVGA GTX980TI SC but not a ton more. You will probably notice a significant drop in fps from running 4 R9-290s but also notice a HUGE drop in heat in the loop and overall power supply. AND finally, you can rightfully brag that you have one of the fastest GTX980TIs out there.

From time to time I get the "itch" to add a second 980TI but truly only for bragging rights.

I've found that a single 980TI serves my purpose and monitor (BenQ BL3200PT). If I upgrade to a 4k monitor I will go one of two routes. (a) Buy a second 980TI and run SLI or (b) buy Pascal.
 
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radeson

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Dec 20, 2014
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radeson: I'll try to give some perspective as my first rig below is somewhat similar to yours as far as cpu/mb/ram.

Both of my rigs below are custom water cooled for both the cpu and gpu/gps.

In my 5960x rig I have 3 XSPC RX480 rads (Overkill, I know!) with a 5960x at 4.4Ghz using an EK Supremacy Evo block and a single EVGA GTX980TI SC with an EK TitanX block. I previously had 2 Sapphire Tri-X R9290s with EK blocks in it.

You obviously have 4 R9290s in your sig so you have experience with multi-gpu setups.

I notice that with the same rad setup, in synthetic benchmarks, my dual 290s beat the 980TI but not by a ton. Your Kingpin is clocked faster (my 980TI is 1102 stock). Under water I can push my base clock to nearly 1300 without artifacting but most times just leave it at stock.

One of the criticisms made of buying a Kingpin 980TI is why put it under water when you have such a huge hunk of copper on the air cooler?

I faced a similar criticism when removing the Tri-X air coolers on my 290s for water.

Since you already bought the KingPin AND waterblock you either return for a refund or build away.

I would venture to say you will get better OCing than my EVGA GTX980TI SC but not a ton more. You will probably notice a significant drop in fps from running 4 R9-290s but also notice a HUGE drop in heat in the loop and overall power supply. AND finally, you can rightfully brag that you have one of the fastest GTX980TIs out there.

From time to time I get the "itch" to add a second 980TI but truly only for bragging rights.

I've found that a single 980TI serves my purpose and monitor (BenQ BL3200PT). If I upgrade to a 4k monitor I will go one of two routes. (a) Buy a second 980TI and run SLI or (b) buy Pascal.


Guskline,
Thank you for the insight. I've wanted this card since I laid eyes on it to be honest. It's disappointing that even with all the top notch components in the card it doesn't do that much better than the average 980ti. It does however outperform most 980ti's slightly.

From what I've read, Maxwell is very picky when it comes to OC'ing. They all pretty much have a maximum limit that is impossible to pass without LN2. So generally most TI's will max out between 1400-1525. But because of the higher end components in the kingpin the results I've seen on the net are anywhere between 1490-1585. With most of them pooping out between 1525-1550.

That being said, if I get a kingpin and I can get 1500 out of it, I will be more than happy.