GTX 780 Classified - why no reviews?

[Nomanor]

It's been out for a couple weeks, why no any legit reviews from anyone?

 

[Black Octagon]

I have no idea.

If I wanted an answer to this question, I'd ask on the EVGA forums or, even better, ask the review sites directly.

 

[OCGuy]

Asking here is perfectly acceptable and encouraged. There is more than 1 card reviewer that participates in this forum, and maybe they can shed some light on the OP's question.

 

[Zoeff]

I haven't seen it for sale either so I wouldn't be surprised to see EVGA is still hunting more chips that can clock to that speed reliably.

 

[Xed]

Extremely limited quantity is likely why. Lightning isn't coming out for a few more weeks so they probably feel they have some time.

 

[Nomanor]

Extremely limited quantity is likely why. Lightning isn't coming out for a few more weeks so they probably feel they have some time.

There are regular internet people who got the chance to buy 2 cards at once.

I was under the impression EVGA would send free cards to the reviewers, like most companies always do.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Maybe EVGA doesn't want reviewers getting them? That's a possibility after the GTX 680 Classified was almost universally panned for it's lack of overclockability and EVGA's subsequent claims of MSI cheating to allow their cards to overvolt.

 

[ZGR]

I did not hear about MSI overvolting their cards to allow longer boost states. But what alarmed me was the extremely high voltage MSI placed on some of their cards.

MSI increased the cards' voltages by up to 88% which would most likely lower their life expectancy. Is cheating the right word here? I'm sure some MSI employees thought higher sustained clocks would be very appealing; but raising a chip from 5 volts to over 9 volts is very stupid.

 

[blackened23]

Maybe EVGA doesn't want reviewers getting them? That's a possibility after the GTX 680 Classified was almost universally panned for it's lack of overclockability and EVGA's subsequent claims of MSI cheating to allow their cards to overvolt.

That's what i'm thinking. The 680 classified was pretty underwhelming, and EV Bot forced your cards into 24/7 3d clocks - idling on the desktop at 65C while using 400W of power doesn't sound like my idea of fun. I used one (680 classified) for a brief while and was not impressed to say the least. Without EV bot it did not clock any better than plain jane reference cards...at least from my experience. And with EV Bot? You lose offset voltages which means your PC will turn into a furnace, almost literally.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I did not hear about MSI overvolting their cards to allow longer boost states. But what alarmed me was the extremely high voltage MSI placed on some of their cards.

MSI increased the cards' voltages by up to 88% which would most likely lower their life expectancy. Is cheating the right word here? I'm sure some MSI employees thought higher sustained clocks would be very appealing; but raising a chip from 5 volts to over 9 volts is very stupid.

No, the thing was Nvidia prohibited going over a certain voltage on any card from any vender. MSI allowed their customers to overvolt the cards to overclock them further and they had the proper PCB and components on the card to allow this safely. EVGA claimed MSI was cheating by allowing it in software as it was prohibited for anyone to have a firmware that allowed it. EVGA used an external hardware device to increase voltage and allow potentially higher clocks. It turned out that it didn't work half as well as MSI's software method and was significantly more expensive. Ultimately MSI was pressured to lock the voltage on all new cards (but you could still find an old firmware online and flash back). Nvidia's concern was RMA rate from venders who allowed overvoltage killing their bottom line.

 

[Xed]

There are regular internet people who got the chance to buy 2 cards at once.

I was under the impression EVGA would send free cards to the reviewers, like most companies always do.

Yes, I almost bought one but decided to wait and see what the lightning brings. If I recall both times they were up for sale on the Evga site they were sold out within a couple of minutes. Hence very limited supply.

From reading their forums it appears the software voltage tool does allow up to 1.35v and a number of people have core clocks over 1300mhz on air.

 

[Black Octagon]

Asking here is perfectly acceptable and encouraged. There is more than 1 card reviewer that participates in this forum, and maybe they can shed some light on the OP's question.

I fully agree...but I maintain that EVGA and review sites themselves are more likely to know the real reason rather than provide the (educated) guesses posted in this thread