3997 appears to be a failed REF as well.

http://forums.evga.com/Ve...lssified-m2499315.aspx

It looks like mine is a Gaming REF. It might be headed back. If it won't perform I don't want it.

If I can't cancel this delivery and have it sent back without having to pay extra out of my pocket I will be modding the snots out of this BIOS. The other Classified Clock Rate board doesn't have a backplate and the 4998 or whatever is way too much plus I don't get free shipping like the one that is on the way, I have to pay $16.00 extra just for shipping to get a 'real' Classified video board? No $50 MIR either!
Just got off the phone with UPS and it is too late to refuse delivery and send it back. I might as well keep it. This poor video board has no idea what is in store for it. Shame on you EVGA for playing tricks on your customers by hanging a Classified label on a lame duck of a video board. Boo hisssss!!!!

Of the Two EVGA 06G-P4-4998-KR's I bought from EVGA during the 17th Anniversary Sale, One had to be RMA'd (No Boot) so I couldn't read the ASIC, But they are cross-shipping me another one that is hopefully better.
 
The Second one that I received has a 79.9% ASIC Score  which is almost as high as my 980ti Kingpin was (81.2%).

arestavo
There is no 0996 980 Ti Classified. That's a Hybrid watercooled card.

0998 - full classified speeds, no backplate, no LEDs
3997 - REF speeds, has backplate, has LEDs
4998 - full classified speeds, has backplate, has LEDs

Edit, if there is a 4997 it would be REF clocked

Amazon has both 3997 and 4997, and as far as I can tell 4997 is basically the same thing as 3997...confusing ain't it? 
 
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-CLASSIFIED-Whisper-06G-P4-4997-KR/dp/B01BX3FCBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470435162&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+980+ti+classified+acx+2.0%2B+ref
 
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-CLASSIFIED-Graphics-06G-P4-3997-KR/dp/B01F1XFLXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470435212&sr=8-1&keywords=06g-p4-3997
 
 
 

My Classified I just got from Newegg is a 0998 & I'm running it with my 980ti SC ACX 2.0+ (or whatever the thingy is) . The ASIC quality is at 71.8% , lower than the SC 76.1% . When I break the sli the Classy will run & 1405 boost , 1361 in sli . Maybe I need to swap the cards (on the board) or don't go thru the hassle ?

You just don't Know for sure what ASIC % you will get in a Maxwell Chip.
 
I have had them anywhere from 81.2% (Just because it was a BINNED Kingpin 980 Ti) / 79.9% in my Latest 980 Ti Classy, All the way down to 65.4% in a $1200 EVGA Titan X Hydro Copper!
 
It is STILL the Luck of the Draw.

Use the Classified Voltage Tool to raise and lower voltage.  On air, you'll want to keep it under 1.187v with fans at 100%.  With an ASIC in the low 60's, I would guess you'd be lucky to see 1500, even if you kept it really cool.

The 2nd bios on the Classy has increased TDP and Power Limit settings.  It doesn't do much....if you were hitting a power limit perf cap with the stock bios, it'll help, but if you're not....it's not going to do anything for you.  

The best bios mod you can do, is watch your voltages at each and every level of CLK in the boost tab, and match the low side voltage in the voltage tab, to that voltage, up to the point where you want the card to boost to, without having to touch the core slider in PrecisionX (not too high, or it'll be unstable as heat rises).  It takes a while to get it tuned just right, but...when done right, it's quite nice.

The hardest thing about overclocking the classy, is handling the balancing act between voltage, heat and core clock.  Too much heat, and you'll need more voltage to keep a specific core clock stable, which in turn, will cause more heat....never ending cycle of "how do I keep this card cooler".

G'luck.

EDIT:  The Classy voltage tool can be found here:

http://forum.kingpincooling.com/showthread.php?t=3801
 

Zuhl3156
I have an ASIC of 78.9 but as soon as it reaches 58° it drops 13 MHz during benchmarks. Fans at 100%, Power Limit at 115%, factory clocks. I'll have to see if my "BIOS Wizzard" can do anything to help me with this one. Boosts to 1240 MHz before it drops to 1227 MHz at 58°C. Using this for testing right now. I just installed a Crucial SSD yesterday:  http://www.modsrigs.com/detail.aspx?BuildID=34751

Can't get around the temp levels, man.  55c is that magic layer of "not today" (and another one about 35c).  That's not in the bios, its in the hardware.  Could maybe reduce the voltage for that CLK setting so it's not running so hot....if it'll run lower voltage there.

Mind if I take a peek at your bios?

got 2x 980 TI Classfield.
 
One of them is 82% Asic.
 
The other 72% Asic.
 
82% Card: Will do 1572Mhz on core.
72% Card: Will do 1519Mhz on core.
 
Both is on air with fans on max for benchmark.
 
Memory will both run at 2100 = 8.4Ghz with 1.69 volt on the memory controller.

 

Zuhl3156
I'm using my main PC "Mab III" right now and don't have the other hooked up to anything right now. As soon as I get a chance I'll extract both BIOS and upload to OneDrive. I said throttling due to temps too but EVGA suport disagrees with me. I didn't think these boards were supposed to throttle this low and see other complaining about running as hot as 80° or more. Here is what support told me but I am not buying it:
 
 
"I don't think the throttling is caused by temps at all. The card won't begin to throttle until it is over 80C in temperature. What I'm thinking is that the power consumption by the cooler itself may play a role because it is still sharing the same power going to the actual PCB but the throttling is so small I wouldn't be concerned about it at all since a mere 13mhz won't even affect one FPS. You can also try locking the GPU clock and voltage by enabling K-boost so the  graphics card can operate at top performance at all times. The LN2 bios theoretically allows for more voltage and allows the graphics card to operate at subzero temperatures hence LN2."

Eh...because they're not technically "throttling" due to high temps.  The architecture just won't run higher clocks at various temps.  For above 1500 on most cards, you need to get the temps below around 55c.  Mileage may vary, depending on ASIC.  To get close to 1600, you'll need 35c or less.  Again, mileage will vary depending on ASIC.  I'm sure there's another layer even lower, but I don't run sub-ambient, so I'll never see it.

Pascal is even worse, with these "thermal layers".

kwkrnu72
 

Mind if I take a peek at your bios?

Here you go. This should be Public so you should not have any problems looking: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoJApSpg5vSIrWTU8bkpXGzAShUC
LN2 BIOS takes my Power Limit from 115% to 141%. Nothing else stands out to me. I don't even have my email installed yet or any Windows Updates. I'll try getting some updates and if I don't get anywhere it's back to Mab.
 
Having a hard time setting the Sharing options. https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoJApSpg5vSIrWTU8bkpXGzAShUC
OneDrive has made some changes since the last time I used it. Shucks!

I'll take a look, thanks. I can't get this pig to find any updates and I can't find that post that listed something they called "The Hammer" that would find updates much quicker. Still trying to decide on which benchmark I want to use. Firestrike makes me sit through that damn demo. I don't really like Heaven 4.0 but it looks like I'll be using that or Heaven 3.0 if I ever get this thing to update.
 
P.S. I'm not real keen on putting PrecisionX on my PC. It is too unstable since EVGA parted company with their qualified Developer. I actually haven't used Precision since 2011.

Dr.Death
there were a lot of guys that noticed there 900 cards would drop off  at like 60c    as you describe   see a lot of that from 970 users   [cause they were out first ]   
 
maybe for example ?
 
http://www.overclock.net/t/1528783/msi-gtx-970-gaming-voltage-throttling-at-65-deg
 
like you they see that small 13 or so MHz
 
I got better results from precision   then afterburner on this card [980ti hybrid]  ??  then you know how it is with cards   [seems I posted on that earlier here in this thread ]  may experiment with both to see  if one give you a better end result ?

It eats up the 13mhz chunks, because that's what's set in the voltage and boost tables for the CLK settings.

Boost table:  CLK 68 = 1506.5
                   CLK 69 = 1519
                   CLK 70 = 1531.5

The voltage table CLK settings for voltage, correspond with those clock settings.

Now, as the GPU heats up, it needs more voltage for specific clocks, so it downclocks to move to the next level down.  Not because it's trying to cool itself off, like a true thermal throttle, but because it's requiring too much voltage for that clock (CLK level).  Now, you can widen the gap on the CLK settings in the voltage table, but with the additional heat, also comes instability...so, most of the time, that's not going to do anything for you.  You can, however, control what the GPU will boost to, by altering those settings.  At least until you get to that point where the heat at the clock / voltage you're running starts to cause instability again.

It's a balancing act....took me two months to get my 970s tuned just right, and a month to get this 980ti Classy tuned in...and still working on it a little, here and there.

For a really simple bios mod, just move the TDP, PCIe slot, Power Limit and 8 / 6 pins up so you're not hitting the power limit any more....the voltage and boost table starts to get a little more difficult.  Most of the modded bios files out there posted up on forums are the simple bios mod type.  600 WATT POWER LIMIT!!!  Which, to most people looks pretty awesome, until you consider that the only thing they've really done, is remove the power limit perf cap.  

''Boost table:  CLK 68 = 1506.5
                   CLK 69 = 1519
                   CLK 70 = 1531.5
ya  I blame NVidia boost 2  ?     then it may peak up to XXXx clock then level off ?    with this hybrid I have not noticed this with it [just that 13mhz ]  ,but  its not like I looked at it hard   if the program puts it up to full load and clocks  it  stays there  until the gpu load if off the card   now when overclocking with out a slight voltage offset  just moving the slider to that 110% thing did not matter too much  I did see it   so if the card don't get the volts it needs to hold a clock it will drop it down  and you see all that orange  spikes in gpu-z  perfcap reason   , nothing now but blue
 
looks like to me with the 10 series cards and boost 3  there clocks all all over the place at time s??
kwkrnu72  seems to be right  with his info  on all that  + ''It's a balancing act....''