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Ordered dual 690 rig. Worried about problems.

E

Eldonwan

n00b
Joined
Sep 11, 2013
Messages
14
I have ordered a new rig with dual 690s but after reading loads of stuff about scaling and performance issues I'm getting concerned. Some people are saying quad sli doesn't work properly with some games or a single card will get better . Others are saying quad sli is a total nightmare with little support from nvidia coz not enough people buy rigs with dual 690s, but there seem to be plenty of people experiencing problems.

It's an expensive system at nearly 5k and I want to be happy with the performance. Being a bit of a noob when it comes to all the pc jargon it is hard for me to know who to believe on this subject so please let me know if I should stop worrying or maybe try to revise my order.

Also it will have a 3770k but would I be better off going for the 4770k? The company I'm getting it from never even gave me the option but I would have thought a newer socket would make sense for little extra cost but am I missing something?
 
I would go with 2 or 3 780s over 690s for sure. More vram and faster. You'd better be running surround if you want any decent scaling. In surround you run into chance of running out of vram tho. You'll only have 2 GB for 4 GPU.
 
in benchmarks ive seen 2 780s doesnt beat 690s though. 780 is just a scaled down titan is it not? I was going to get one screen initially with high res but not sure what to go for, unsure about surround because i do have a dodgy eye which can get tired with more than one screen.

Thanks for replie btw.
 
Eldonwan said:
in benchmarks ive seen 2 780s doesnt beat 690s though. 780 is just a scaled down titan is it not? I was going to get one screen initially with high res but not sure what to go for, unsure about surround because i do have a dodgy eye which can get tired with more than one screen.

Thanks for replie btw.
Click to expand...

Well the 780 is a single card, while the 690, is two underclocked gtx 680's in one pcb. From a raw performance standpoint, two gtx 780's are slower than two 690's. From a fluidity and scaling standpoint, two 780's would have been a better choice.

And as dutchman mentioned, quad 690 Sli scales poorly for single screen gaming.
 
Coming in here asking for advise after placing your order was not exactly the right order to do this in. If you can cancel or revise, do so immediately.

I would highly suggest asking for the assistance of others in building your own rig because you will save thousands of dollars over that custom build.

If you *must* buy a pre-made rig then you really should change those 690's to 780's. The 690's will be a limiting factor before long with only 2gb frame buffer as mentioned already. Secondly, the less amount of gpu's the better than overall experience will be.

3770k vs 4770k is a non issue. I actually prefer Ivy over Haswell and even Sandy over Ivy but that's another discussion entirely. Haswell is only better if you are using the onboard GPU within the CPU.
 
So I was right to worry then. It hasnt been built yet and is currently getting painted so should be ok to revise order. Damn this is so confusing....so 2 690s is basically 4 680s right? Powerful but has alot of issues, will 2 780s run well then and what about 3?

Would like to have built my own rig but when spending this much cash wouldnt want to screw it up. I know you will say its easy but still seems a bit scary to someone who has no building experience.

Probably will just stick to one screen so maybe 1 690 is way to go?
 
Building your own computer is quite easy to do, to be honest. It just takes some patience and a little research if it's your first time (+ plenty of guides online, and help from others here).

But if you must buy pre-built, I would recommend a gtx 780 (or two?) over a 690, if you plan on sticking to single screen gaming. It has more v-ram (3gb, compared to 2gb), and it is slightly slower than the titan at stock.
 
Eldonwan said:
So I was right to worry then. It hasnt been built yet and is currently getting painted so should be ok to revise order. Damn this is so confusing....so 2 690s is basically 4 680s right? Powerful but has alot of issues, will 2 780s run well then and what about 3?

Would like to have built my own rig but when spending this much cash wouldnt want to screw it up. I know you will say its easy but still seems a bit scary to someone who has no building experience.

Probably will just stick to one screen so maybe 1 690 is way to go?
Click to expand...

You'd be okay with 2 780s if you're going to run 2560*1440 or &1600. 3 780 is probably overkill unless you're looking at a 4K monitor. If you're gaming at 1080p, I think 1 780 would be enough.
 
ok I will ask to change to 2 780s tomorrow. Funny thing is I was buying this to run Rome 2, seems that it wouldnt matter what machine I got it still won't run right.
 
Eldonwan said:
I have ordered a new rig with dual 690s but after reading loads of stuff about scaling and performance issues I'm getting concerned. Some people are saying quad sli doesn't work properly with some games or a single card will get better . Others are saying quad sli is a total nightmare with little support from nvidia coz not enough people buy rigs with dual 690s, but there seem to be plenty of people experiencing problems.

It's an expensive system at nearly 5k and I want to be happy with the performance. Being a bit of a noob when it comes to all the pc jargon it is hard for me to know who to believe on this subject so please let me know if I should stop worrying or maybe try to revise my order.

Also it will have a 3770k but would I be better off going for the 4770k? The company I'm getting it from never even gave me the option but I would have thought a newer socket would make sense for little extra cost but am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Quad SLI does not scale well at all. a few 780's would provide a better overall experience.
 
Which 780 is best, there are lots of makes with different stats? Their putting in a custom built dual loop water cooling system, is that sufficient cooling and is the 1050hx power supply enough? They say it is all about the power given to each track and it is actually better than a 1200, is that right?
 
Assuming the cards are being added to the loop, any reference style card will do. The power supply you selected, is more than enough to power it.
 
Not sure about the PSU, but the asus dc2 780 is considered the or one of the best money can buy, especially considering it uses an aftermarket PCB, which will be better than a ref. version. THe cooler could matter less if you are WC'ing. 1050w is probably overkill for this system, but hey, this is [H].
 
Ok asked to change them but he said they had fitted the water blocks so could not return them as they were new cards so would charge me price of one card to change and if I wanted to cancel it would cost about 20% of total cost. Either way it is not an option so will have to stick with it and hope for the best. If worse comes to worse I could sell the cards on eBay and probably break even.But would have to drain system which would suck.

Oh well I just hope they run well, he says it is only a handful of games that don't support quad and if you want pure power no other dual setup compares. Nvidia have a new driver in beta state too which may sort even more issues and quad is a new tech so support should get better and better for it. Just gonna be positive and will let you guys know how badass it is when she's running.....hopefully.

Thanks.
 
For nearly the same price, I would go with 3 780's instead of 2 690's. Tri-SLI works pretty well and that's more than enough power for just about any setup at the moment.
 
Eldonwan said:
Ok asked to change them but he said they had fitted the water blocks so could not return them as they were new cards so would charge me price of one card to change and if I wanted to cancel it would cost about 20% of total cost. Either way it is not an option so will have to stick with it and hope for the best. If worse comes to worse I could sell the cards on eBay and probably break even.But would have to drain system which would suck.

Oh well I just hope they run well, he says it is only a handful of games that don't support quad and if you want pure power no other dual setup compares. Nvidia have a new driver in beta state too which may sort even more issues and quad is a new tech so support should get better and better for it. Just gonna be positive and will let you guys know how badass it is when she's running.....hopefully.

Thanks.
Click to expand...


This is going to be a very expensive lesson I think. I can come up with a handful of games off the top of my head that show moderate scaling with 4-way SLI and none that show good scaling (quad SLI isn't even remotely new, its been around for a long time now), and many that show no or negative scaling.

690's are vram limited out of the box, and adding twice the GPU power just makes it worse if you're trying to play at high res. However, a 3770k at conservative clocks like I'm assuming yours is at will be a limitation as well if you try to stay single screen.

Always remember, when you're making a big purchase ask for advice before you buy, not after.
 
I have 3 780GTX cards in TRI-SLI and have ZERO problems, all 3 overclock well and almost everygame scales great with them!!!!!!!!!!
 
ive ordered it from Uk gaming. Please dont scare me anymore, I need someone who has this setup to tell me everything will be OK.

An expensive lesson is probably true....in 5-6 years I will build my own rig after lots of research. In the meantime I will probably pull whats left of my hair out in frustration.
 
@Eldonwan

Hey man, don't worry. It's probably going to make you into a graphics whore, lol. Be sure to get some of those good looking games and lap up all the juicy graphics.
 
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