GeForce GTX 690 Review: Testing Nvidia's Sexiest Graphics Card

[outlw6669]

[citation][nom]balister[/nom]You forget, however, that the GTX 590 was 2 GTX 570s, not 2 GTX 580s...[/citation]
[citation][nom]borden5[/nom]590 is not 2x580 btw so that's why the price is lowered than 2x580[/citation]
[citation][nom]cchsballa0655[/nom]Btw the 590l was $700 because both gpus were neutered...they had their cuda cores artificially limited...the only real full dual 580 card was the asus mars 2[/citation]

Not sure which GTX 590 you all are looking at as the GTX 590 that was released was 2x fully functional yet underclocked GF110 cores (ala GTX 580), same as this round.
Additionally, each GF110 has a die size of 520mm² (1040mm² silicon total) as compared to the GK104's 294mm² (588mm² silicon total).

In fact, the GTX 680 uses an amount of silicon somewhere between that of a GTX 550 (238mm²) and GTX 560Ti (360mm², the GK104's direct predecessor).
Seeing as these cards where initially released for $150 and $250 respectively, I am completely of the opinion that nVidia is bending us over due to lack of competition.

 

[mikenygmail]

On anand, 7970's in crossfire consistently beat the 690 in every benchmark and usually by a lot, but here somehow it's completely different? Could you possibly be any more biased?

 

[mikenygmail]

I meant to say that on anand, 7970's in crossfire consistently beat the 690 in crysis every benchmark and usually by a lot, but here somehow it's completely different? Could you possibly be any more biased? I didn't even bother to look at any other benchmarks because of this ridiculousness.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, they probably are. Same as Intel is bending people over for neutered versions of their 8-core Sandy E chips.

Welcome to a free market economy with no strong competition. Want someone to blame? Blame AMD.

 

[verbalizer]

I think it's funny that my comment is getting downvoted by nvidia fanboys.

Sorry to break it to your green skulls folks, but 2GB vram ain't gonna be sufficient forever. No way to know when it won't be enough, but eventually it won't be.

Also, GPU boost is not a feature. GPUs have been running at low clocks and then jumping up to a higher clock for a good number of years now. All this "feature" does is add a middle step inbetween and make the final clock dynamic. This is pointless at best and an obstacle at worst for anyone who wants to overclock the card themselves.

And, this card isn't gonna be available unless you sit on newegg and mash f5 at launch.

I never realized how much green blood flows through viewers' veins on this site.

I'm starting to think that your realizing the mistake of your past ways.
your trying to make your self feel better about your under-performing cards.
It's cool, the Green Team will welcome you.
start your repentance now..

 

[schnitter]

I remember when I bought the ATI 5890 thinking in a couple months price would drop. The price never dropped, the card went out of production, and due to the small amount of sales, you couldn't even get them for cheap on eBay because they were considered "rare" and "best for data mining."

I guess this card will be the same so there is no "cheap" way to SLI two of these.

 

[mightymaxio]

Hate to say it but AMD looks pretty damn awesome right now for CL performance since most developers want to game and develop on the same computer at home.

 

[gsxrme]

Not to bad but the FPS with more than 1 GTX680 with a CPU set as low as the 1 they used is a waste. I love to see a review of a CPU like my i7 2600k @ 5.1Ghz and 2200Mhz cas7 Ram running SLI.

The CPU and Ram bottleneck was huge! in this test. Videocards can finally hold off and wait for AMD and Intel to catch up on CPU/RAM end. and im not talking about idiots who think 16GB makes them game better. I mean, DDR3L @ 3Ghz or something and CPUs running @ a solid air cooled 24/7 5Ghz+ factory.

I'm about to watercool my GTX680s and set it at 1.4Ghz and call it 3 years before Intel and AMD know what to do.

anyone who doesn't know what to spend money on other than going quadSLI 680s or SLI 690s I'd throw it at a new Samsung 830 480GB SSD. IMO

 

[vochtige]

if they make the unfair dollar to euro pricetag than i can earn this carn in 1/2 month hard work! Should there be ppl who sell their car for 1 card such as this one?

 

[erunion]

No FPS graphed over time? Shame. That's the benchmark that was needed.

 

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]milkshakez7z[/nom]Looks very nice. Pity I'll never own one.[/citation]That's what I said about GTX 285's in 2009. But now I can get one for $100. A time may come when one of these finds its way to my secondary gaming rig...except that they'll only produce like 80 of them, so that probably won't happen.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

[citation][nom]chumly[/nom]It CAN play Crysis.[/citation]
I hope so! LOL otherwise something is very wrong with the direction we're taking in technology.

 

[slomo4sho]

$1200 for Evga's GTX 690 at newegg.com...
Might as well run triple SLI for an additional $250-300 assuming you can find the cards...

240% markup from the GTX 680 is damn excessive.

 

[halcyon]

This is one nice piece. Really. I almost wish I had waited and not gone with dual 7970's. A bird in the hand beats 2 in the bush...or so I'll tell myself.

 

[cmi86]

First Nvidia gets a large chested brunette in a red dress, now "sexy" right in the title of the article. I swear, the 7990 better get strippers or something because I'm really starting to think Tom's is riding some serious Nvidia marketing dick right now.

 

[LOL92]

I AM WAITING THIS REVIEW FOR A LONG TIME!

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]lol92[/nom]I AM WAITING THIS REVIEW FOR A LONG TIME![/citation]
You mean, "I have been waiting for this review for a long time."

 

[capp1688_77]

I got a 6870x2 for 230 the other day, and thought I was king of the world...then I saw the benchmarks for this card...it's a thing of beauty. And now my card feels very dated :O

 

[zeratul600]

what mb will support a 3 way sli or cross fire in all of its glory using x3 nvidia 680 or x3 ati 7970, is lga 1155 capable of a 3way gpu build or it is only available on those godly expensive lga 2000 sockets???

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]CMI86[/nom]First Nvidia gets a large chested brunette in a red dress, now "sexy" right in the title of the article. I swear, the 7990 better get strippers or something because I'm really starting to think Tom's is riding some serious Nvidia marketing dick right now.[/citation]
I hope you mean "7990 better be competitive." It's up to the vendors to *earn* positive coverage. It's not our job to share love all around. We're talking about recommendations for the way people spend real money here.

 

[Guest]

I have a EVGA GeForce GTX580 SC right now thinking of getting the EVGA 690 but then again I wish I could see the release of the 7990 but they planned it for beginning of June which is annoying. So now im stuck on the fence.

 

[dreadlokz]

Nice card!
I don't like to see diferent versions of drivers! Meaning you use old results from other tests!
Tests should use all the latest drivers for every piece of hardware, even if they are rubbish, blame on the developer not you!

 

[Badelhas]

I am going to buy 4 of these for 8x-way sli

 

[thehoj]

[citation][nom]mikenygmail[/nom]On anand, 7970's in crossfire consistently beat the 690 in every benchmark and usually by a lot, but here somehow it's completely different? Could you possibly be any more biased?[/citation]

Did we read the same reviews?.. I think your perception of Toms is biased.

When you compare game to game, the only games that they both compared are:

-Battlefield 3 (Both sites put the 690 ahead of the 7970 CF)
-Skyrim (Both sites put the 690 ahead of the 7970 CF)
-Dirt 3 (1920 & 2560 both sites put the 690 ahead. At 5760 the results do differ)
-Metro 2033 (2560 & 5760 Both sites put 7970CF in the lead, and at 1920 both sites put both very close)

The 7970CF did not beat the 690 "consistently in every benchmark" on Anand's review.

 

[xtreme5]

much better..