I know this sounds like a weird way to go about things but I sold my Strix 980 Ti OC because I really began to hate Asus locked down policy and their warranty for anything is absolutely the worst support I've ever dealt with.  Replacing an EVGA PSU was the easiest thing ever with cross shipment.  I'll be sticking with EVGA from now on.  
 
The initial plan was to get the FTW 1080 with my pre-order that I have with Amazon, but Microcenter had some FEs in stock this morning and I got tempted and went there.  Of course they sold the last one minutes before I arrived.  They had an EVGA 980Ti Classy w/BP in stock and I was able to price match the card to $599 with rebate.  I thought it was an amazing deal as I can just use this until EVGA has stock and I can use the step up program.  
 
Does EVGA ever have SC or FTW edition cards in that program?  All I am seeing currently is the ACX 3.0, which would be fine with me since it appears all cards even the FEs are overclocking to roughly the same value.  I figure my Classy to that 1080 will be almost a direct trade minus shipping expenses.  Any idea on how fast the program might work if I submit everything by tonight?  
 
Also my Classified came with Samsung memory and an 84% ASIC. 
 
Thanks in advance.

Overclocked/custom PCB cards such as FTW and classified are NOT part of the step up program, so you are stuck with only the FE, ACX 3.0 or EVGA's blower design to step up from the 980ti Classified

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

There is more factors that are involved than just a card. It beats the 980 ti kingpin, but not the regular 980 ti in your 3dMarks link.

LittleGuy

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

There is more factors that are involved than just a card. It beats the 980 ti kingpin, but not the regular 980 ti in your 3dMarks link.

 
That is what the chart shows. I do not count any kingpin scores also it is not my link but 3dMarks link.
Better Take another look  3dMarks  I do think that 24620 is a little higher then 24390
But it is better than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Cards

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

Graphic cards are not intended to be upgraded every year. I am 100% sure that a single 1080 is going to do well when compared to my soon to be replaced 680s. 
 
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6933744 (They are still getting the job done.)
 

jgonz

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

Graphic cards are not intended to be upgraded every year. I am 100% sure that a single 1080 is going to do well when compared to my soon to be replaced 680s. 
 
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6933744 (They are still getting the job done.)
 

Yes indeed going from 2 GTX 680 cards to one GTX 1080 would be a big jump in performance.
I really did like my old 3-Way GTX 680 Classified HC Graphics Cards, I set some nice scores at that time.
I only do not see any real jump between the GTX 980Ti and the GTX 1080 Cards is all, more so with the 980Ti Classified Cards.

bcavnaugh

LittleGuy

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

There is more factors that are involved than just a card. It beats the 980 ti kingpin, but not the regular 980 ti in your 3dMarks link.

 
That is what the chart shows. I do not count any kingpin scores also it is not my link but 3dMarks link.
Better Take another look  3dMarks  I do think that 24620 is a little higher then 24390
But it is better than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Cards

You are the one that said they are not doing that well and in your link it shows a 980 ti kingpin which was a higher clock than a regular 980 ti get beat by the 1080, but losses to the 980 ti. To me that's a bit odd. It shows that it's not only the card that plays a factor in the benchmark so how can you say the card is not doing well? The regular 980 ti could be in a rig that's heavily over clocked and the 1080 can be in a AMD rig with a stock clock. So we really do not know. I would like to see benchmark where the 980 ti and the 1080 are using the same rig.

LittleGuy

bcavnaugh

LittleGuy

bcavnaugh
Better Check this out: The GTX 1080 Graphics Cards are not really doing well 3dMarks   GPU's DX 11/12

There is more factors that are involved than just a card. It beats the 980 ti kingpin, but not the regular 980 ti in your 3dMarks link.

 
That is what the chart shows. I do not count any kingpin scores also it is not my link but 3dMarks link.
Better Take another look  3dMarks  I do think that 24620 is a little higher then 24390
But it is better than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Cards

You are the one that said they are not doing that well and in your link it shows a 980 ti kingpin which was a higher clock than a regular 980 ti get beat by the 1080, but losses to the 980 ti. To me that's a bit odd. It shows that it's not only the card that plays a factor in the benchmark so how can you say the card is not doing well? The regular 980 ti could be in a rig that's heavily over clocked and the 1080 can be in a AMD rig with a stock clock. So we really do not know. I would like to see benchmark where the 980 ti and the 1080 are using the same rig.

 
It might be due to the 1080 cannot run 3-Way and 4-Way and that might be why they are not showing up on the Hall of Fame over on 3DMarks.
As I said above it is not a card to replace the GTX 980Ti you need to wait for the GTX 1080Ti.
Also the GTX 680 is two generations behind and for any one with a single or an SLI setup with 680 cards a single GTX 1080 card word be a step up.
Please Drop the kingpin from this Thread as we are talking the GTX 980Ti Classified to the GTX ACX 1080.
 
Anyway LittleGuy as I Said the Cards are not doing well on 3DMarks not in general.
For your 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 2560MB that you show on your  web page one GTX 1070 or a GTX 1080 card would be a really big jump in power, that is if the Pascal will run on the older X58 Chipset Motherboards.

m.ferrari450
Like others said, SC, FTW and Classy cards are not included for Step Up.  Personally, I have a 980 Ti Classy that I'm stepping up to the 1080 ACX for $12.  While many are right saying there isn't a huge difference, I merely am doing this to hold better value and resale value in the card that way later down the road if there is a 1080 ti card released, I can sell this 1080 for a better price than a 980 Ti

This. After thinking about it and how much I'll miss this beautiful classy card the 1080 is still the fastest card. Has 2gb more vRam buffer and will hold a higher resale value when I upgrade to a 1080Ti.

I've already processed my Step Up and am waiting on that. $38 step up including the overnight shipping.

I know this is 3 weeks old, but I just got my hands on a new evga 980 ti classified on newegg for $479.  After reading the reviews of the 1080 from 3rd party reviewers I figured I would look for a price drop on the 980 tis.  I think with the classy 980 ti ill wait till the next gen of gpus with the new type of ram.