It's only like 13MHz faster than the SC Black.

Size of the cooler, rgb, thermal sensors, size of the pcb. Since all of the cards are boosted beyond stock by gpu boost 3.0, speeds don't matter. It's just a number to put out there, nothing more at this point, unless you are truly running into some form of throttling.

Also, it says it is a custom design, and it has more vrm than the reference boards, which gives people hope that the card will instantly overclock better than any card that has less vrm, when in reality, most of the cards overclock the same.

It is a 2 slot cooler in height, but it is longer and wider than the SC Black.

Look at the dimensions in the specs, or pictures from reviewers

Very very few cards ever run at stock clocks from the factory. I would also love to see proof that the ftw3 actually overclocks further than the SC or SC2.

Because it just looks really cool and sexy!

Because it's green:
 
 

Red ain't so bad either...
  
 

Carbonshape
It's all about optics and there are people that really impressed with something like size. I don't know if that really matters. And wonder a little why EVGA - in all their wisdom - haven't released a version like a Classified...

Just personal opinion, but there is no place for the classified. In the past, the FTW added 2 extra power phase vrm to the board, and the classified and the kingpin was 13 power phases. This time, the FTW3 was 10 phase, and so is the kingpin. That leaves absolutely no reason to waste the time on a classified with the same power phases, same cooler, same board... and in the end, it would be just a different name, nothing else. In the past, the classified was a gap filler for the kingpin. There is no gap this time.

Scarlet-Tech

Carbonshape
It's all about optics and there are people that really impressed with something like size. I don't know if that really matters. And wonder a little why EVGA - in all their wisdom - haven't released a version like a Classified...

Just personal opinion, but there is no place for the classified. In the past, the FTW added 2 extra power phase vrm to the board, and the classified and the kingpin was 13 power phases. This time, the FTW3 was 10 phase, and so is the kingpin. That leaves absolutely no reason to waste the time on a classified with the same power phases, same cooler, same board... and in the end, it would be just a different name, nothing else. In the past, the classified was a gap filler for the kingpin. There is no gap this time.

Makes sense.
There is just no reason for a Classified.
It will have almost all the same features on the FTW3. Maybe some design changes, but nothing else.

EVGA_JacobF
Because it's for the win :)

I'm still missing that hotdog edition though.
 
But to be honest I think the FTW3 is just popular because of it's original design and agressive looking triple-fan layout, it is also a first for EVGA card to do triple-fan.
And I suppose it stays cooler under lower noise levels versus the two fan coolers, has dual-bios and custom PCB with better components.
 
By the way, wasn't the FTW3 the only card that had RGB LEDs advertised at first? Has this changed now?
Because early May or so I had submitted product specification corrections for the FTW3, SC Black and SC2 Gaming on https://www.tweakers.net, but the latter two are currently still advertised as white led and not multi-color...
 
Ontop of that I see that the store pages for US/EU/AU/FR/DE are all showing different products, like there is the 11G-P4-5390-KR on US/AU but not at the other regions.
And the AU store is missing buttons for auto notify or buying on many products including prices, and the FR versions have nothing at all, even the shopping cart and promotion items are missing...
What is going on?  (I'm not logged in on any of the regions right now)

 
Even though I chose the Kingpin, the FTW3 card is still an awesome card.

Do not get THE FTW3! EVGA has yet to acknowledge the ftw3's have a bios problem, it annoys me that they are not looking into as deep as we are.

Check for the full info: https://forums.evga.com/1080-TI-FTW3-watercooled-Slave-BIOS-doesn39t-go-over-117-cause-identified-see-post-85-m2693145.aspx
 
TLDR: EVGA says we get a 127% power limit, but it seems to always throttle at 117%-118%
 

That will help get you to switch into slave bios, but you will never see 127% no matter what "program" you run.

Updated my post above.. also does this happen with the elite model as well?? Just bought one and have yet to open it up.

tech73x
The steps you have will allow you to switch over to the slave bios and have access to the 127% power target and alter the fan profile. As far as ever reaching the 127% power limit is yet to be seen by most with FTW3's. I have the new elite FTW3 and I am having the same issue, no matter what benchmark or stress test I ran.

Nice.. :/ could this just be a heat issue? As in the card can't run fast enough,cool enough to reach the full power profile? Anyone water cooling this card and still having this issue?

Forget all that.. just read the thread and there's people with water cooling having the same issue.