I know there's a trivial difference in the boost specs, but is the rest of the difference just the lack of aesthetics and a back plate?
 
As far as I know they've stopped doing the "A" chip binning so I'm unclear about the differences.
 
08G-P4-3081-KR vs. 08G-P4-3182-KR
 

brentsg
I know there's a trivial difference in the boost specs, but is the rest of the difference just the lack of aesthetics and a back plate?
 
As far as I know they've stopped doing the "A" chip binning so I'm unclear about the differences.
 
08G-P4-3081-KR vs. 08G-P4-3182-KR
 

Other than being a better OC'er (XC), it has RGB compared to just a blue light on the Black Edition.
 
Looking at the current pricing, I'd stick with the XC but that's if you want to shell out $30 more.

brentsg
Was more a question of availability than $30.

How would we know they are better overclockers? If it’s the same cooler and PCB.. and Nvidia isn’t doing binned chips now... Is EVGA gimping power limits or binning at the card level?

Than disregard with what I said about OCing if they still aren't doing 'non-A' and 'A' chips.  Regardless, I'm going on the assumption that each SKU's has a particular silicon tested by EVGA for guaranteed advertised speeds.  Outside of that window is a lotto.