Callsign_Vega

I'm ok with 1.35v on my two classifieds as they are both kept under 60 C max and the next gen of GPU's are less than six months away. But ya, if you buy a 680 Classified and want it to last three years I wouldn't run it at 1.35v IMO. 

Yeah, Heat is the killer for electronics, control it and you will extend component life regardless of the voltage you abuse it with ....All within fair reason !

Orici

I must be lucky, i got mine a few days ago and it still has the plug.

Whats your bios version please?

EVGA_JacobF

This is official NVIDIA response:

Some of our best and most passionate customers have told us (though forums, partners and directly) that they are frustrated with our position on GPU Overvoltaging.  So we feel that it is important to explain exactly what our position is and why we feel that it is important.

We love to see  our chips run faster and we understand that our customers want to squeeze as much performance as possible out of their GPUs.  However there is a physical limit to the amount of voltage that can be applied to a GPU before the silicon begins to degrade through electromigration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration).  Essentially, excessive voltages on transistors can over time "evaporate" the metal in a key spot destroying or degrading the performance of the chip.  Unfortunately, since the process happens over time it's not always immediately obvious when it's happening.  Overvoltaging above our max spec does exactly this.  It raises the operating voltage beyond our rated max and can erode the GPU silicon over time.

In contrast, GPU Boost always keeps the voltage below our max spec, even as it is raising and lowering the voltage dynamically.  That way you get great performance and a guaranteed lifetime.
So our policy is pretty simple:

1. We encourage users to go have fun with our GPUs.  They are completely guaranteed and will perform great within the predefined limits. 
2. We also recommend that our board partners don’t build in mechanisms that raise voltages beyond our max spec.  We set it as high as possible within long term reliability limits. 

 
The reason we have a limit on max voltage is very simply to prevent damage to the GPU chips.  At NVIDIA we know that our customers want to push their GPUs to the limit.  We are all for it, and as a matter of fact NVIDIA has always prioritized support for hardware enthusiasts by providing tools to access hardware settings and by supporting our board partners in creating overclocked enthusiast products.  Leading up to the GeForce GTX 680 release for example, we worked closely with developers of 3rd party overclocking utilities to make sure they fully supported GeForce GTX 680 and GPU Boost on the day of launch.

 
ah i see whats going on. well i understand. thanks jacob for clearing that up. for me, im only going to push my cards to 1.225 max or maybe 1.25 as that is as far as i went with my gtx 275, not that the difference in manufacturing process shouldnt be taken into account. i believe we will see more of these voltage restrictions, not because nvidia is a bum, but because the physical nature of the manufacturing process, it being sooooo small now, will limit the amount of voltage we can put through them due the smaller and smaller amount of electricity that can be handled per transistor. while its great to go smaller to get more efficiency, i think it will also have a side effect of not being able to handle as much voltage.
 
im not an engineer, but im pretty sure this is the case. engineers out there chime in if you can.
 
EDIT: take note that i am not raising the voltage above 1175 mv until i get both my 680's under water, and even then i dont plan to go over 1350-1400mhz as i have 2 of them.... what more do you need? lol

.....where do you think EVGA gets the cards ....who pays for the actual RMA card if its beyond fixing easily ?.....Ya Nvidia..sigh

Everyone wants Evga to eat costs but not raise prices.That type of thinking makes EVGA takes all financial risks and eats all costs while raising all prices across the board.Great business plan .....And completely forgetting they are selling someones product .
 
Shortsightedness on this seems to be a theme

Anyone WITHOUT a Evbot Connect, can you give us the last 3 even of your Serial, or at least the first 8 to see if those change any from ones that have bot to ones that don't.

Anyone have a card with SN# above xxx1000  that still has the EVBot connector?

We have confirmed above ~800 or so.
 
Anyone?
 
Bueller?
 
 

BioHazardSperm

Everyone wants Evga to eat costs but not raise prices.That type of thinking makes EVGA takes all financial risks and eats all costs while raising all prices across the board.Great business plan .....And completely forgetting they are selling someones product .

Shortsightedness on this seems to be a theme

 
Not everyone wants EVGA to eats the costs.  I wouldn't loose any sleep if they decided to keep the evbot plug on the classifieds and raise the price to cover what they needed to.  I am all for that.

Hi all i was waiting for the 680hc to come out i love evga and tell aver 1 to buy them . i have a ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 Intel X79  with a 3820 cpu with Liquid Cooling  i was  think of   going to go with the ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II cos it has  VGA Hotwire allows you to plug and solder wires on the card’s to over voltage it with ASUS Rampage IV Extreme  and jest put a Water Blocks on them . i dont know what do all u think?

Andrew_K
At this point, if you're okay with soldering things you should definitely go for a DCII. I've seen many people get 1400+ (even 1500mhz) on water with them due to the amount of voltage you can pump into them. Good question, and good choice now. Before, I'd say you should consider a classy, but now with them taking out Evbot ports, I'd pass on that.

Are you just talking about 1.175V or 1.2125V or above?
 

this is what i think.   the 680 was meant to be the mid range card till nvidia seen how bad if you want to call it the 7970 did. and seen that the mid range card could compete with there flagship card. so they made the mid range card the 680 as we know it today.
 
so they dont want the 680 to be faster then what the new (speculation) 780 will be.  i bet its a very tiny upgrade over the current 680.
 
i have a feeling we will go back to normal o/c and voltage control in the next 1 to  2 generations.

CAxVIPER

Andrew_K

With no evbot, the most you could put into a classy is ~1.2v. The DCII with hotwire can go much higher (I know of one guy that puts around 1.4-1.5v into his and can get 1550 easily). This generation is all about voltage. (or not, according to Nvidia)

I've heard some pretty bad story about Asus RMA and tech support but they are about to become the brand I use for everything. Better bios, doesn't care what nvidia says, release products often.

Evga step up your game fellas, eat the cost of the defective Classy and continue to make them with unlocked voltages. 

 
I've also heard bad stories about their customer service, but if they have products that own the competition I don't really care. That's what's getting sad about Nvidia pushing all of these restrictions. EVGA would easily be the top pick for products if they can keep the top range of performance. 
 
I heard about tons of RIVE DOA/RMA horror stories before picking up the board, but that didn't stop me because it's such a beast. 

Andrew_K
With no evbot, the most you could put into a classy is ~1.2v. The DCII with hotwire can go much higher (I know of one guy that puts around 1.4-1.5v into his and can get 1550 easily). This generation is all about voltage. (or not, according to Nvidia)

Lots of people don't get above 1300 Mhz on 1.2125V. EVGA GTX 680 Classified is expensive.
I'm really not sure if I will buy a EVGA graphic card again next year (GTX780 series), doesn't look good for EVGA at the moment. Ok, the air cooler is good, but EVBot removed and DCII is cheaper and seems to get often higher voltage-clock-rates

EVGA_MatthewHIf anyone bought a card before we updated the site today that did not come with an EVBot connector please contact me directly.

Hi Matthew, guys: I bought three 680 Classifieds nearly at the time of release, but got them from NewEgg since there was no stock from EVGA.
 
Now Im highly interested on buying a fourth 680 Classified for a 4-WAY SLI setup, but the fact that nVidia has forced EVGA to remove the EVBot connector makes me think twice about it.
 
Is there any way to know if I would still get a 680 Classy with the EVBot connector if I bought the card from NewEgg again instead from EVGA?.
 
Thanks a lot in advance.

Amazon is still has the 680 Classified with the EVBot plug, at least for the moment.  My sisters boyfriend ordered 2 this past Thursday and just informed me that his cards have the plug.