Which 780 to pick?

[mhirt34]

Just as the tittle says, which 780 should I pick. So far my choices are EVGA 780, 780 OC, or 780 Classified, as well as ASUS DCUII. I have these options because they are currently the cards that I can buy water blocks for. Which one of these cards should I pick for the price? is the extra price premium (~$60) worth it for the Classy? 

[FloRolf]

if you want to wc definitely i'd go either reference (normal evga, some nicer looking blocks) or Classy. It really depends on you if you think the $60 are well spend on the Classy. You get a lot more oc headroom or like 5-10% performance incease out of the oc. And it looks better imo.

[Face2Face]

If you plan on pushing her hard with a modded bios and using an overvolt tool - out of your list, the Classy is the only option.

[VSG]

Not really, the 780 references cards have been cracked to give up to 1.3v for core voltage which is better than nothing. The Classy can go up to 1.35v applied via Classy Tool or even higher via EVBot, it has better components that can likely handle these voltages for a longer time and has more options to play with- memory voltage up to 1.8v, PCI-E lane voltage, PWM frequency.

[LmeAde2]

The ASUS GTX 780 DCUII http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DWV3NM6 get's my vote. It comes with a custom PCB, great VRM cooling, and the quietest and most efficient cooler on the market.

[Gammawolf]

The ASUS GTX 780 DCUII http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DWV3NM6 get's my vote. It comes with a custom PCB, great VRM cooling, and the quietest and most efficient cooler on the market.

 

This

[Faa]

I'd say the DC2 because they usually have higher asic quality than classifieds.

[TheNinjaNextDor]

Get a reference EVGA card because warranty is not void if you remove the cooler.

[VSG]

I'd say the DC2 because they usually have higher asic quality than classifieds.

 

ASIC doesn't mean anything really other than the potential leakage needed to power a certain card at a certain speed. It is no indicator of a card's performance.

[Face2Face]

Not really, the 780 references cards have been cracked to give up to 1.3v for core voltage which is better than nothing. The Classy can go up to 1.35v applied via Classy Tool or even higher via EVBot, it has better components that can likely handle these voltages for a longer time and has more options to play with- memory voltage up to 1.8v, PCI-E lane voltage, PWM frequency.

I meant to say in my opinion  Looks like we got a lot of Asus lovers up in here.... I haven't owned one in quite some time - why the love over the Classy?

[VSG]

Asus marketing is better and somehow that means people are ok paying for Asus branding and their relative poor customer service.

[Faa]

ASIC doesn't mean anything really other than the potential leakage needed to power a certain card at a certain speed. It is no indicator of a card's performance.

Ofc it's not an indicator of performance.. But its an indicator how well the chip is binned. A higher asic quality chip would clock better on air, a lower one would clock better at water. Since most people would be on air a DC2 would be much better. Haven't seen a single DC2 below 75% asic. Got two of them with 85% doing 1300MHz@1.20V

[VSG]

No it is not. Binning is not based on ASIC at all now. If a company is doing that, then all they are doing is assuring an even playing field on air, water, LN2 etc for all their chips.

 

You are right in that a higher ASIC chip would likely perform better on air compared to a lower ASIC chip but that is only if both cores are identical. A well binned core, even at low ASIC, can outperform a poor overclocker with high ASIC on air- that's the entire point of binning. You get a card that performs better the colder you go, but also have a great starting position as well.