This > 

And Europe ?????????

From the pictures side by side, the 980 fins run length wise of the card, and the 970 run width wise, so I am curious if there is a specific advantage to one direction of the other.

I wish I could actually buy any of them but apparently their not selling any of the models with ACX 2.0.

se7enupmustang
I love EVGA and I was planning on getting pair of 970's until I saw that you guys decided to put blue on the ACX cooler. Sorry but you've ruined it and I don't plan on buying them now.
 
 
 
A shame honestly

Nothing a sharpie couldn't fix.  "but a sharpie would ruin the warranty?" A dry erase removes sharpie, and the blue would be pointing in a direction you couldn't see (unless you buy an inverted tower mount).  It is kind of a petty thing to rule out an entire line up just because of that, but it is all in preference.
 
Looks like a good deal to get the 980 SC ACX2.0 over the reference 980 SC, since the base clock will already be boosted higher and there is the ACX on it.  
 
 

Marcin79

se7enupmustang
I love EVGA and I was planning on getting pair of 970's until I saw that you guys decided to put blue on the ACX cooler. Sorry but you've ruined it and I don't plan on buying them now.
 
 
 
A shame honestly

Notsureifserious.jpg
 
You're not going to see it anyway once installed, the fans/shroud face downward in standard config.

Scarlet-Tech

se7enupmustang
I love EVGA and I was planning on getting pair of 970's until I saw that you guys decided to put blue on the ACX cooler. Sorry but you've ruined it and I don't plan on buying them now.
 
 
 
A shame honestly

Nothing a sharpie couldn't fix.  "but a sharpie would ruin the warranty?" A dry erase removes sharpie, and the blue would be pointing in a direction you couldn't see (unless you buy an inverted tower mount).  It is kind of a petty thing to rule out an entire line up just because of that, but it is all in preference.
 
Looks like a good deal to get the 980 SC ACX2.0 over the reference 980 SC, since the base clock will already be boosted higher and there is the ACX on it.  
 
 

exilelrrp

se7enupmustang
I love EVGA and I was planning on getting pair of 970's until I saw that you guys decided to put blue on the ACX cooler. Sorry but you've ruined it and I don't plan on buying them now.
 
 
 
A shame honestly

lmao! You ruined it for yourself.    

 
1. I'm completely serious and there is a huge splash of blue on top of the cooler so it would be seen.
 
2. Using a sharpie to color over the blue accents would be about as useful as planting the card in your garden as it would look far worse than just leaving the blue accents intact. I also have no concerns about the warranty as EVGA's warranty when it comes to re-coloring parts is fine. In addition the idea of coloring on a brand new GPU with a sharpie is on a level of stupidity that I'm not willing to step down to.
 
3. It's personal preference, aesthetics are as important to me as the actual performance of the hardware so the unnecessary addition of the blue accents completely ruined the card. EVGA hasn't done that in the past and it's very confusing as to why they saw fit to do it on all of the ACX coolers for the 970. The addition of the blue just seems like too much of a departure from EVGA's styling methods making to look tacked on and out of place.
 

se7enupmustang
I love EVGA and I was planning on getting pair of 970's until I saw that you guys decided to put blue on the ACX cooler. Sorry but you've ruined it and I don't plan on buying them now.
 
A shame honestly

That's only little peace, easy become red or silver or even green if someone like NVIDIA
color with peace of tape and you don't need to pain at all.
I like more cooler on GTX780Ti Classified than on KP version but inside of case both look same, excellent, fine and my have higher clock.
 
To be honest for me is blue color somehow weird for EVGA but it's very small piece of card. Maybe they want to try little different something. 
Let' see models attractive for me...
EVGA GTX980 SC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-2983-KR) black and look excellent, 1126MHz > 1266MHz, 140MHz higher GPU clock.
And incredibly overclocked EVGA GTX970 FTW ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-2978-KR), from reference 1050MHz > 1216MHz. 166MHz higher GPU clock.
Looks like Maxwell OC nice... People should pay attention on 2x EVGA GTX970 FTW for little more than GTX780Ti Superclocked price...  
Special because almost 170MHz more than reference card and should pay attention on EVGA GTX980 SC ACX 2.0. 
Very good first Maxwell series I can bet we will see more models. 
And even people who like standard NVIDIA turbine can enjoy in GTX980 Superclocked model for 25MHz less than SC ACX 2.0 version.
 
Let's say Titan Black performance for 569$ - EVGA GTX980 SC ACX 2.0 4GB...
No one can't say now 4GB is not enough, even stronger than Titan Black,
if I saw good performance are between GTX780Ti/Titan Black and K|NGP|N Classified
Looks like and EVGA prevent ACX 2.0 from noise and improve fan blades...

 
 
 
 
 

ok i'll ask here...
 
first batch cards buyers will get a free backplate? One of the reviews says we will get a free backplate in the future.
Any LED light on top of the ACX cards?

WOW what the...GTX 970 FTW won the HEXUS performance award...

se7enupmustang
 



 
1. I'm completely serious and there is a huge splash of blue on top of the cooler so it would be seen.
 
2. Using a sharpie to color over the blue accents would be about as useful as planting the card in your garden as it would look far worse than just leaving the blue accents intact. I also have no concerns about the warranty as EVGA's warranty when it comes to re-coloring parts is fine. In addition the idea of coloring on a brand new GPU with a sharpie is on a level of stupidity that I'm not willing to step down to.
 
3. It's personal preference, aesthetics are as important to me as the actual performance of the hardware so the unnecessary addition of the blue accents completely ruined the card. EVGA hasn't done that in the past and it's very confusing as to why they saw fit to do it on all of the ACX coolers for the 970. The addition of the blue just seems like too much of a departure from EVGA's styling methods making to look tacked on and out of place.
 

 
#1. Just stop.  Your pennies won't have any effect on EVGA's selling.  
#2. The level of Stupidity you refer to is concerning less than 2% of this entire card, and it is a huge splash.. refer to #1.
#3. It is preference, like I stated.  Your opinion won't change the card, so you can go to another company, or you can get over that tiny "huge splash".  Either way, refer to #1 lol.
 
Don't get bent out of shape when someone says something about your reasoning. You posted to the masses, and they gave their feedback on your post.  Don't want their opinion, then it is best to keep yours to yourself.  
 
Mine wasn't meant to offend, but you obviously took it and blew it out of proportion.. good job.  

Anyone know if these cards are compatible with the Pro SLI Bridges? Will the Pro SLI Bridges still light up when used with these cards?

HKKILLER888
OK so what happened to the back plates?i really wanna buy 970 FTW but i saw no back plate on it...

I would like to know this as well... I have two cards out for delivery today from amazon (GTX 970 SC ACX 1.0, didn't even realize they made acx 1.0 on  these cards which is another disappointment as I thought I was ordering the 2.0 card :( ) and between them potentially not coming with backplates and definitely coming with the wrong fans, I'm not positive whether I want to (or should) keep them. I did see a review on techpowerup mentioning that first-batch cards without backplates could ask eVGA for them but I would like to get this confirmed or denied from the horse's mouth :).
 
@EVGA_RobB and @EVGA_JacobF any information in regards to the backplates if my cards don't come in with them out of the box?

Any news on the step up program? I keep refreshing. I thought Step Up was available the same day as the announcement usually. 

Killing me today that i can't find a GTX 970 FTW to order in the UK. I have heard that OCUK was meant to get them but broke the NDA so didn't now i have no idea where to order from. Feel like a headless chicken! :P

Afterburner
The hydro 980 looks interesting... Only one Dual DVI, multiple Display ports and an EK WB...

The same can be said for the 980 FTW & 980 Classified. I don't think they're final renders. Everything else below has the correct I/O.