" Like Kingpin has stated, Maxwell limits out via temperature or voltage. Because the reference PCBS's are hard locked voltage wise and at 84c temprature, we do "sort" the GPU cores for the superclocked versions of the GPU's and then the very best overclockable GPU's are "binned" to be the Classifieds and the Kingpins. Even though they may have lower ASIC scores, we sort them NOT by ASIC scores but what we are able to stabile overclock them too and then put them in the appropriate models. So essentially, unless you do water cooling or LN2, high or low ASIC scored card, your very rarely going to go past around 1550 mhz core speed, even the higher "binned" Classified cards cards. In the end, its a silicon lottery, ASIC score or not. :"

spawni
My card arrived today. Nice design and quiet cooling.
ASIC is round about 70%
Is it possible to change the LED white into another color like the 980 Kingpin?
 

spawni
My card arrived today. Nice design and quiet cooling.
ASIC is round about 70%
Is it possible to change the LED white into another color like the 980 Kingpin?
 

X-Cellence123
First: Sorry für my bad English
 
I have the same problems with my 980 Ti Classified - Increase of Voltage has no effect on max. GPU Clock
my max Clock is 1480Mhz on Air and Water
 
ASIC 69
Max Clock 1480 Mhz @ 1,18V -> not bad and better than my Reference 980 Ti ACX 2.0 ASIC 65
Stock Cooler is quiet and sufficient on this Voltage
 
BUT 1490 Mhz -> Driver reset on all Voltages even with Watercooling(tested until 1,34V than clocks decrease because of temperature (54°C))
 
Results: Higher Voltage are completely useless to reach higher GPU Clock and the Classified is for normal User with Watercooler senseless und a waste of money in my opinion

Scarlet-Tech

spawni
My card arrived today. Nice design and quiet cooling.
ASIC is round about 70%
Is it possible to change the LED white into another color like the 980 Kingpin?
 

 
RGB is unique to K|ngp|n cards.  All other cards get white. 
 

BlueSaber80
SOB, so after all this time and waiting, my brand new Classified has got serious coil whine issues  It does it in game and is really bad during any high framerate menu's and cutscenes. It's only quiet on windows desktop. ASIC score is 71%

Anyone else's have issues or does my karma just royal suck? Newegg is outa stock and i'm guess i'll just be getting a refund when I send in for RMA

jgcpop
Good news, everybody! With minimal effort the GTX980 classified block WILL fit the 980ti Classified.

 
Caveats:

1. I had to remove one of the mounting posts on the back of the waterblock. It's the one just behind the PCI-e connector. The good news is that those posts unscrew from the plate, so I didn't have to break out the mill!
2. The memory isn't completely covered. It's close, though, and eventually I might just get a piece of thin copper sheet to create a small "connecting" plate, but for right now, it's good enough. See here:
   
3. I had to use the backplate that comes with the 980ti Classified 2. The 980 classy backplate will definitely not work without some millwork. However, it cost me about $2 to get six 3mm x 8mm screws and two 3mm nuts, and it mounted right up.

Is it perfect? No. But it saves me $150 to order another waterblock (assuming we can find one that fits it 100%), and the 980 classy block extends out to cover those extra chips near the outside edge. Mine hits 42C running furmark with a 125MHz offset on the GPU clock, and idles at 28C with KBoost enabled to keep it at max clocks. I haven't really tried pushing it yet, but that's next.

My ASIC is 75.0%, by the way.

Scarlet-TechThis has been a known issue with Maxwell.  Doing research would have shown this ALOT.  I have suggested TOO many times that people looking for Air and Watercooled performance stick to reference cards, but NOONE listens and get upset when they get Air and Water cooled performance.  The Classified is very specifically set up for Extreme cooling and will not perform any better than a regular card on Air or water.