The video board has three power inputs, amazingly enough

Feb 2, 2015 08:45 GMT  ·  By

If overkill was a term in need of a picture to signify its meaning, the new graphics card from EVGA would probably fit. Even though the cooler only has two fans, the rest of the specifications definitely warrant some raised eyebrows.

Normally, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card would operate at 1,126 MHz or 1,216 MHz when in GPU Boost mode, while the 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM work at 7 GHz.

The new card from EVGA is much faster, even without you going overboard and manually tweaking the adapter.

But that is ultimately what the video board is all about: overclocking. The card even has a third power input for that purpose.

You could even say it has one and a half extra pins. The reference card employs two 6-pin inputs, but the newcomer has one 8-pin and two 6-pin ports.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N

The base clock of this adapter is 1291++ MHz, while the GPU Boost setting is of 1393++ MHz. The double pluses there are indicative of manual overclocking headroom.

The card is named in honor of the overclocker who goes by the name of K|NGP|N. He has achieved many world records in 3DMark benchmark tests with NVIDIA hardware, and he helped design the card.

The memory capacity is the same 4 GB, and the memory bus is of 256 bit as usual. Even the clock is left alone, at 7 GHz.

That's not such a shock, however. In recent years, we've seen less and less memory tweaking even when the GPUs get optimized in the factory.

That said, the card has a digitally controlled VRM (14+3 phases) that can deliver a current of up to 600A. That's where the three power inputs come in (8 pin + 8 pin + 6 pin) and where the ACX 2.0+ cooler might need to be taken off.

Perhaps this is why the cooler isn't anything bigger and badder; overclocking the board beyond the factory point will need water cooling or liquid nitrogen, so there was no point.

EVGA even included a single-slot bracket in anticipation of you buying a water block separately and installing it on the card.

"The power designs for both the GPU and memory on the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N graphics card should allow some insane overclocking and some of the highest clockspeeds seen to date. Also, with the new multi-color LED cooler, you can customize the look of the card to fit any system," said Vince "K|NGP|N."

Availability

The EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N graphics card, with LED color embellishments and 12-layer PCB, should be put up for sale soon, if it hasn't already, for a fair bit more than the $550 / €550 of the stock model.

Show Press Release

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N (6 Images)

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N cablesEVGA GeForce GTX 980 K|NGP|N graphics card
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