NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Dual GPU Video Card Review @ [H]

The 690 is certainly quite impressive, of special interest is adaptive VSync.

With this said, where does [H] stand as far as releasing a review for a product that will take a while to hit the shelves, and in very limited numbers?
Nothing wrong with the GPU, and nothing wrong with the review.

But gee, even the 680 is available in limited supply, driving prices higher.

Would it not make more sense to release the reviews if there were guarantees that the product would be released en masse shortly after the review?
 
PRIME1 said:
It's pretty safe to say the 690 would utterly destroy the 6990, It's not worth testing. A 7990 would most likely be slower than 7970 CF, which is slower than A 690. Not to mention how broken AMD drivers are right now.

It's amazing to think this could have been a dual 660. :cool:
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AMD still has time to come up with their dual-GPU answer. I doubt that they'll try to make something that's faster than a GTX 690 though. I think it's a lot more likely that they release a 7990 that's as fast as 7950 CF, but priced at $699 USD. With three of four DisplayPorts.

PRIME1 said:
It's amazing to think this could have been a dual 660. :cool:
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I was thinking the same thing, cool to see someone else mentioning it :)
 
fomoz said:
I doubt that they'll try to make something that's faster than a GTX 690 though.
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I wouldn't blame AMD for trying. nVidia has played their hand and now AMD knows what they have to beat. If 7970 price drops are any indication they're at least going to try and keep some sort of price/performance lead.
 
0xygenthief said:
No, troll.... What's that?

Ever heard of voting with your wallet? By expressing my distaste for a vendor's actions I bring crap like this to others' attention. The hope being to negate any gains, newegg in this case, might have made through price gouging by convincing others to boycott them and opt for a different vendor.
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LOL please.. Newegg is constantly sold out of anything having anything to do with the 6 series GPUs, including the 690.

When somebody says "supply & demand", they're not trolling. They're telling you how it is. If you don't like the price, don't buy the product. That's how this works. If it makes you feel better to whine about it on a hardware forum, then by all means.. have at it.
 
night_2004 said:
I wouldn't blame AMD for trying. nVidia has played their hand and now AMD knows what they have to beat. If 7970 price drops are any indication they're at least going to try and keep some sort of price/performance lead.
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The only way they'll be able to beat it will be price/performance. I don't see how they could put two 7970 chips on a card and get the power and thermals under control enough to allow the kind of cloks it would need to beat the 690. I doubt they would even try. As someone else said, something on the order of 7950 CFX at $749 or $799 would be pretty effective.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
I ran mGPU with 6870s and it never bothered me once.
It is very subjective. Which is why its hardly been mentioned in any reviews on this site up until a gernation or so ago. mGPU has been around a lot longer, yet never any mention of frame metering before. Never did I see Nvidia cards before get mentioned for having higher frames but less smoothness. Its just odd that suddenly its a deal breaker.
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The impact of MS increases the further up you go in resolution. 5870 CF for instance still looked more or less smooth at 1920, however once you jump into Eyefinity it's pretty awful, SLI on the other hand looks just as smooth at 5760 as it does in at 1920.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
I ran mGPU with 6870s and it never bothered me once.
It is very subjective. Which is why its hardly been mentioned in any reviews on this site up until a gernation or so ago. mGPU has been around a lot longer, yet never any mention of frame metering before. Never did I see Nvidia cards before get mentioned for having higher frames but less smoothness. Its just odd that suddenly its a deal breaker.
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With all the PC ports that are dumbing down PC gaming (zing!) some of the biggest increases in GPU power demands that I've observed have been triple screen gaming or more advanced AA modes. Maybe its getting to the point that even those features are "good enough" and now reviewers are starting to look at other factors beyond raw frame rates to differentiate between cards?
 
Sold my MSI GTX Lightning Xtremes and got lucky enough to nab a GTX 690 from EVGA same day I read this review yesterday. Not bad for a $200 upgrade IMO. ;)

Two GTX 680's would be a bit faster at the expense of higher power usage but I have to agree that the difference is negligible when it averages a 2% difference. I'm also inclined to get one as I have gained more appreciation for expansion slots on my system board after going the 580 SLI route...
 
aShrubbery! said:
The 690 is certainly quite impressive, of special interest is adaptive VSync.

With this said, where does [H] stand as far as releasing a review for a product that will take a while to hit the shelves, and in very limited numbers?
Nothing wrong with the GPU, and nothing wrong with the review.

But gee, even the 680 is available in limited supply, driving prices higher.

Would it not make more sense to release the reviews if there were guarantees that the product would be released en masse shortly after the review?
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I have no control over supply nor demand and am not going to vary our release dates dependent on those.

However, you are free to not read the content till you feel it is time.
 
I am completely sold on getting one of these for box #2 named Goliath ;) Acoustics combined with performance have sold me. (don't care about power consumption, of course that ties in with acoustics though) Hopefully, a non price gouging etailer will have one available next week.

Every previous dual GPU setup i've owned noticably made the room signifigantly warmer, looking forward to gaming at insane speeds with no noise and less heat.
 
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Kor said:
The impact of MS increases the further up you go in resolution. 5870 CF for instance still looked more or less smooth at 1920, however once you jump into Eyefinity it's pretty awful, SLI on the other hand looks just as smooth at 5760 as it does in at 1920.
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I know i've said this before and sorry for being redundant, but I hope an objective measure for MS is developed. I swear to christ that I haven't seen MS in years and i've used 7970CF, 680 SLI,580SLI and have not seen a bit of MS with vsync on....obviously , there is tearing with vsync off on either setup....I don't know if it has something to do with surround or single screen, I play vsync'ed single screen. I have seen MS on uneven CF years ago, but not since...
 
xoleras said:
I know i've said this before and sorry for being redundant, but I hope an objective measure for MS is developed. I swear to christ that I haven't seen MS in years and i've used 7970CF, 680 SLI,580SLI and have not seen a bit of MS with vsync on....obviously , there is tearing with vsync off on either setup....I don't know if it has something to do with surround or single screen, I play vsync'ed single screen. I have seen MS on uneven CF years ago, but not since...
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I've never seen screen tearing, even though my brother tells me its very obvious. I am glad I don't actually know what screen tearing is, so I won't look for it :p

We def. need a way to measure MS accurately.
 
Outstanding review! Amazing delivery of performance at the power consumption level, both stock and oc'd.

nVidia, I bow towards this engineering marvel you have bestowed upon us. The bar has now been set, and set really high, for how a dual GPU card performs. Congratulations!
 
After 24 hours of use I will say this is a fantastic dual gpu card! Mine never got over 72C at full load and idles at 29C. Fan is super quiet and performance is what it should be like.
 
^Nice! Can't wait to get mine.

What are you guys running for a PSU for a single 690.

I am thinking about going with a SeaSonic X650 but not sure if I should bump it up a little to be safe.
 
Yeah I think I'm going to go with something in the 750 range, thanks.
 
Why aren't there any other threads about the 690? This card is out in Australia as of the other day, and it's retailing for 1600-1700 dollars over here. Which is rediculous considering the AUD is on par with the USD.
 
0100 said:
^Nice! Can't wait to get mine.

What are you guys running for a PSU for a single 690.

I am thinking about going with a SeaSonic X650 but not sure if I should bump it up a little to be safe.
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Right now I'm running an Antec EA 650 and I should get my GTX 690 today or tomorrow. They say 650W should cut it but I'll let you guys know if I end up running out to grab a new PSU. My total system draw now is ~450W with a GTX 580 so we'll have to see.
 
Let's see, most of the PC games we get sre POS DX9 console ports. Yep we really need this card to run those, 1000 bucks, (the toilet goes flush.)
 
whiz187 said:
Let's see, most of the PC games we get sre POS DX9 console ports. Yep we really need this card to run those, 1000 bucks, (the toilet goes flush.)
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Just because YOU don't need it doesn't mean someone else doesn't NEED or WANT it.

Also I guess you never heard for Metro2033 or BF3 at resolutions greater than 5760x1200 maxed out with more than 60FPS.
 
Well I got my GTX 690 today but I decided to get a new power supply and I won't be able to get one until tomorrow so my 690 is just sitting on my desk for now. :(

I forgot my PSU only has 1x 6+2 pin PCI-E connector and 1x 8 pin connector. I started making plans to make up a power cable or get some adapter cables but then I decided I should just get a better PSU with the proper connections instead of screwing with power for a $1000 video card. My 650W PSU would be on or over the limit anyway.
 
just got my 690 this morning from newegg. didn't have much time to check it out as i was on my way to work but i noticed there were no seals on the box. so for those of you who bought one, did yours come sealed with those clear circles?
 
My EVGA sig 690 was taped, it was in a huge black box. The cardboard standard edition should be plastic wrapped. The card itself had plastic tape like material covering both vapor chambers... and the
anti static bag had a yellow seal on it.

I didn't get it from newegg though. Newegg is notorious for selling used products as new, its happened to me a few times. Inspect your card carefully!

What model did you get?
 
Ok. I'm pretty ticked right now. Just got home from work and was juiced to open up my GTX 690 from newegg. They definitely sold me a used card. There are finger prints on it AND a scratch in the shroud. This is unacceptable especially since i paid full price for a used card. I'll take pictures once i find my camera. Gonna call newegg first.
 
xoleras said:
My EVGA sig 690 was taped, it was in a huge black box. The cardboard standard edition should be plastic wrapped. The card itself had plastic tape like material covering both vapor chambers... and the
anti static bag had a yellow seal on it.

I didn't get it from newegg though. Newegg is notorious for selling used products as new, its happened to me a few times. Inspect your card carefully!

What model did you get?
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This is exactly how my EVGA 690 was from NCIX.
 
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