Overclocking
Seeing benchmarks at stock speeds is all well and good but it misses a large point of the Classified. Our regular method of overclocking is to see how high the sample cards run when no additional voltage is applied. In the case of the EVGA, operating at a maximum voltage of 1.212V, the card scales to 1,420MHz core (1,560MHz boost) and 8,132MHz memory, representing the highest speeds on both fronts from any partner GeForce GTX 980 card.
Rather than list the Classified's overclocked score in isolation, which becomes semi-pointless, here is how it compares against the other GeForce GTX 980s we have tested recently.
The regular, non-overclocked Classified is shown at the bottom. Each GTX 980's maximum stable frequencies are noted alongside their respective scores in the 3DMark default and Extreme tests.
Our sample Classified chirped along at a 1,550MHz boost core speed throughout the overclocking tests. Falling marginally behind the Galax HOF in the standard test, EVGA gets its own back at the Extreme preset.
And overclocking provides a 13 per cent uptick when compared to the stock Classy.
The EVGA PrecisionX utility has scope to increase the GPU's voltage to 1.3V. Users wanting even more can indulge in some unofficial tweaking by downloading a different BIOS and software voltage-adjustment tool, though you do so entirely at your own risk.
Nvidia has instigated a number of BIOS locks on these new Maxwell cards that prohibit the BIOS from being flashed easily. You need to download a particular NVFlash utility to circumvent such measures (again, at your own risk), leading to the Classified being equipped with a 'no-limits' BIOS.
Note the change in BIOS versions? This is where the Classified's three BIOS settings come into play, enabling you to safeguard the shipping iteration should problems arise.
The upshot of such experimenting is the ability to run at >1.3V via the voltage tool. We ran with 1.35V, considered the safe upper limit for air-cooled cards, and reached a stable boost speed of 1,620MHz... enough for the card to score 7,178 at the Extreme test - the first time 7K has been breached by a single-GPU card - and push the Total War: Rome II average framerate to 55FPS.
