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Not sure if this is a right thread for this but couldn't find any better and I don't think this is worth starting new thread. Anyways... I have just completed a series of benchmarks with my 780 Classy. My GPU is not so great overclocker for the Classified but still it ain't a bad overclocker at all. I've tested with 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark 11, 3DMark Fire Strike, Unigine Heaven and Unigine Valley. Everything is cooled with (cold) air. My 780 Classy's stock ACX cooler has been upgraded to Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme III and the stock LN2 bios has been flashed with the T | I (Tech|Inferno) bios, which has been working best for me. Thanks a lot for your modded bios, svl7. Screenshots can be found from the direct links below. Any comments about my benchmark results are welcome. EDIT: All scores updated 22.12.2013! 3DMark Vantage: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/e5m005irdowi9rj/evga_gtx_780_classified_3dmark_vantage_oc_final.jpg 3DMark 11: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lyaxmkmsi5mvurf/evga_gtx_780_classified_3dmark_11_oc_final.jpg 3DMark Fire Strike: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/w2y8a1msozs9dt7/evga_gtx_780_classified_3dmark_fire_strike_oc_final.jpg Unigine Heaven: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/g4ctudl3wyqce2j/evga_gtx_780_classified_unigine_heaven_oc_final.jpg Unigine Valley: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/zxulkwlpc76qytk/evga_gtx_780_classified_unigine_valley_oc_final.jpg And finally, a photo of my rig, including my 780 Classy with the Accelero Xtreme III cooler fitted: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5vnahjkf79zowtl/IMG_0996.JPG

Has anyone else here have attempted to fit the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme III on 780 or 780Ti Classified or am I the lone wolf here? The stock ACX cooling on my card kept weird noises since from the day I installed the card. I removed the cooler and examined it. I noticed that some of the fins on the cooler were very loose which I think was the main reason why the card kept that awful rattling noise everytime fan speed started to increase or decrease. And the cooler also had the weird humming noise especially when the fan speed changed. Instead of RMA'ing the card I decided to upgrade to more efficient and quieter solution, the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme III. Installation was really easy, I didn't even had to use the aluminium heatsinks that came with the cooler. Instead I've kept the card's original black aluminium cooling plate (part of the original ACX cooler) which takes care of cooling the memory and VRM. The cooling plate is attached to the PCB with a bunch of small screws, there's at least a dozen of them. Best thing about the original cooling plate is that it covers the whole PCB and it keeps the PCB not getting bent (Accelero weights over 600g). I had to completely remove the cooling plate first from the card and modify it a bit so that the mounting plate of Accelero could fit in the GPU area (didn't had enough clearance for Accelero's mounting plate in GPU area). It was very simple to modify, all I did was the cut off the excessive aluminium surrounding the GPU area (I cutted it so that the GPU area on cooling plate is completely square) to make sure there's enough clearance for the Accelero to fit on top of the GPU. I used pliers for cutting the cooling plate, the aluminium is a soft material to work with so no need for proper cutting tools. Although the Dremel would be the easiest solution for cutting. Without this modification the copper bottom of the Accelero wouldn't have made any contact at all to the GPU so this modification was definitely a needed operation. Another option would have been just to remove the original cooling plate completely and glue on the aluminium heatsinks that came with the cooler. But I came to an conclusion that modding the original cooling plate to fit with the Accelero is much simplier and easier than glueing the heatsinks and is more efficient solution too. Only real problem with the Accelero Xtreme III and GTX 780 is that controlling the fan directly from the video card drivers doesn't work properly. Several people have reported that fan controller on the GTX 780 is not compatible with the fans on Accelero Xtreme III, even though it runs the fans on ACX cooler just fine. It has something to do with the different specs between the stock ACX cooler fans and Accelero Xtreme III fans or another explanation is that the fan wiring on Accelero is somehow different from the stock ACX cooler. Luckily I had a existing solution for this issue: Scythe Kaze Master fan controller mounted on the front panel on my case. However, I had trouble connecting the fans of Accelero to my fan controller. First, I tried to use the Molex adapter that came with the Accelero that lets you connect the fans directly to PSU instead of the GPU. With this adapter you can choose from two different options, 7v and 12v. Unfortunetaly the adapter didn't do anything when I tried to find a way to connect it to my fan controller, the fans were completely dead on the Accelero when I managed to plug it in to my fan controller (my fan controller has a 3-pin female fan plug with yellow-red-black wiring). I couldn't find an suitable adapter, no matter how hard I searched through the internet. So I decided to make the appropriate wiring myself. First, I took the old Fractal Design 120mm case fan from the closet and cut the wire off from the suitable point so I could have the 3-pin male fan connector and some wiring with it to make the connection. Then I removed the small 3-pin VGA fan connector from the fan wire of the Accelero. Then I just simply stripped the wires (red, yellow and black) I have just cut from the case fan and from the wiring of Accelero fans and wrapped them together so that the colors of the wiring matches. I used electric tape to insulate the bare wires I did just wrapped together to avoid any shorting. And bam, the fan controller recognised the Accelero fans instantly and as a result I have now full control of the fans on the Accelero. I keep the fans of the Accelero at 1700-1800rpm at all times and I can't seperate the sound of the Accelero fans from my case because they get covered to the sound of the all other case fans I have on my case. The difference in cooling efficiency between 780 Classified stock cooler and Accelero Xtreme III is huge. For example, when running 3DMark Vantage in factory clocks and voltage, GPU max temperature was 73C with the stock cooler with default fan profile. Now with Accelero, max temps were only 56C. Ambient temperature was 23C at that time. So you can expect at least 15 to 20 degree improvement on max temperatures if you upgrade to Accelero Xtreme III over 780 Classified's stock ACX cooler. For me it was definitely worth the upgrade. I'm very satisfied to the end result. I took a few photos of my card inside the case with Accelero fitted, please use the direct links below to view them. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5vnahjkf79zowtl/IMG_0996.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/15zrtrxy4gsl2m7/IMG_0997.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ch65m9rngfrnv53/IMG_0998.JPG

To ensure the smoothest gaming experience, I would stay away from SLI. From my point of view one GPU is always better than two for gaming unless you like to struggle with multi-gpu issues like frame stuttering and cooling issues. Been there, done that. For 1080p @ 60/120fps or 1440p @ 60fps one powerful GPU is enough. The minimum you should get is GTX 780, even better if you can afford 780 Ti. I would forget the Titan now since the 780 Ti is available.

For CPU cooler I'd recommend Phanteks PH-TC14PE. It's the best tower CPU air cooler I have ever owned and in the past I have owned nearly all the top end CPU coolers from the most reputable manufacturers in the cooler market (Thermalright, Noctua, Prolimatech...). Just make sure your case is large enough before buying. And for PSU my recommendation would definitely be Seasonic Platinum series. If you got no plans to go SLI, Seasonic P-660 is an excellent choice.

Back in 2008 I had a Corsair HX620 PSU that had a buzzing noise. The buzzing noise was audible only when running games and other 3D applications like benchmarks (3DMark etc.). I also remember that I had couple of GTX 280's and GTX 285's which also produced the buzzing sound during gaming, especially when the FPS was very high. It's very common to think that the sound comes from the PSU even it truly comes from the GPU. Most likely the sound comes from the coils of the PSU (or GPU) as people have already stated here. No buzzing or whining sound issues with my current Seasonic X-650 PSU and EVGA GTX 780 Classified GPU.

This is what I'd suggest for the PSU if it fits to your budget: Welcome to Seasonic USA If you're not planning to go SLI, P-660 is a great choise. That will be most my likely choice for my next PSU when time leaves my 4 year old Seasonic X-650.

GPU-Z claims that the revision is A1, which I believe is the same thing than stepping. Is there any other way to confirm this? EDIT: Never mind, solved my problem. I downloaded and flashed the OC Edition v03 for Classified on my card from the attachment in the 1st post on this thread. It's an excellent bios, got rid of all the throttling issues I had with the previous bioses I've tested. It's all good now.

Yesterday I tried to flash the 780 Classified OC Edition v00 bios to my 780 Classified card. After successful flashing I got major artifacts all over the screen, even outside Windows. Wasn't this supposed to work fine with all A1 stepping 780 Classified cards? Or do I need to get the v03 version to have the compatible and correctly working bios for my card?