shogonTo some, they buy the Kingpin cards and other highly clocked ones because they don't have to fiddle with anything, it's the fastest out of the box. No need to gander with sliders, no time spent testing stability, just hopefully, enjoyment.

^^^Best answer yet^^^!
 
ps...... I have a Strix 980 in my machine now but tomorrow I'll put a 980FTW in and call it a day.

I thought I would chime in on these questions.
 
1)  SC/SSC/FTW cards.  All of the factory OC cards have *ALL* been pulled, tested, flashed and had a load test done on them at their designated above stock clocks, they have to pass for heat and error counts. 
 
2)  For overclocking, it really is a lottery.  For example, I was testing on here, i got a reference 980 at +295 core and +400 with ambient based cooling on it, I was not using a chiller or going subzero, and the previous one I had at my test bench (had it for something else entirely) only we like +45 without  a lot of voltage, and only got around +65 with it.  Yes these are obviously the extremes but they do serve my example.  When you buy a card you never now how much further above the listed clocks it can go.  Sometimes that is about all it will do, other times the clock on an FTW is barely scratching the surface of what it is capable of.  So buying a factory overclocked card guarantees some level of overclock compared to reference.
 
3)  As for what voids the warranty.  Soldering things onto the card, scratches/cracks on the PCB, general component damage, WATER DAMAGE.  Clocking it is fine, clocking it a LOT is fine, waterblocks, chillers, peltiers, DICE, LN2 are all great as well, just return it to how it was stock and you are good to go.  The EPower card *DOES* void the warranty.  **PLEASE NOTE**  That this is not needed for the KPE cards, a KPE is basically better base components AND an EPower card integrated.  So for a KPE this is not necessary, as it already has one, and the link supplied by MSIM was form Tin modifying a reference 980 card, that was also done around launch for the Games24 event, and due to Maxwell's very low power consumption natively, this was the only way at that time to get enough power through it to make a reference 980, even on LN2, outperform the previous gen KPE card.
 
 
In general what Cool GTX said hits the nail on the head.
 

Cool GTX
 
You need to remember that the PC overclock is only as good as the weakest link. 
Some owners just want plug and play simplicity. 
Others enjoy chasing the perfect overclock and highest benchmark score. 
Some fall in between. 
You have been give a lot of great information from fellow form members; but, ultimately the individual must consider time and budget along with what their desire to spend time doing entails.
Enjoy you system.

And between the silicon lottery, and the fact that there are SO many variables, and like CoolGTX said a systems OC is only as good as the missing link, this is WHY we don't make a full size overclock guide, as there is no one size fits all approach to overclocking, there are guidelines which I have discussed in other threads over the years, but but there is no 1 correct answer.  An heavily overclocked computer can be a rather fickle beast.  So with that said, we offer some canned, nothing crazy, but definitely noticeable overclocks and let you our customer base take them from there, and if that means plug it in and enjoy it, great, if you want to push it to the ragged edge, GREAT!!, have fun and please post screenshots  :)
 
Hope this clears some of this up.
 
@OP, if you or anyone else have questions for me, please ask, I will do what I can to get you solid info.

Mikael_Wartooth
On my vanilla 980's with ACX 2.0 I'm running +280 on the gpu clock and +370 on the memory clock on air, no overvolt, and the cards still don't get above 62 c. 

Great example of silicon lottery!  Glad it clocked so well for you.

So Mr. snitzle have you found your answer to your question yet?
And if so what was the answer that you come up?

Heini2

shogonTo some, they buy the Kingpin cards and other highly clocked ones because they don't have to fiddle with anything, it's the fastest out of the box. No need to gander with sliders, no time spent testing stability, just hopefully, enjoyment.

^^^Best answer yet^^^!
 
ps...... I have a Strix 980 in my machine now but tomorrow I'll put a 980FTW in and call it a day.

 
I thought the same, but after the 980 FTW fiasco, I have decided to stick with the vanilla cards for now, especially since it's more than enough for my setup.  I can get 200+ OC if I choose to, but stock is more than enough for my setup.  I didn't want to chance it this go round (gun shy), so I went with the 980 Ti step up card.