Gtx 680 SLI v GTX Titan v GTX 690

Kyobba

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Feb 25, 2013
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I am upgrading most of my pc at the moment and I am not sure which graphics card I should go with out of Gtx 680 SLI v GTX Titan v GTX 690.
I am running 5760 x 1080 display so I figure CPU ram is important but purely on performance across all fields, however mostly games such as bf3 C3 wow across all 3 screens,

My specs for this build are :
i7 3930k (aming for 4-4.5 OC)
1200w cooler master gold psu
32gb vengeance cordite ddr3
Asus rampage v formula 2011 socket
Doing a custom water cooling loop with 360 radiator, planning on cooling CPU and possible gpu

If anyone can help me choose my cards or maximize my performance in any way please let me know, my price range is about 3.5k AU and I plan on using pc case gear so if anyone feels inclined to really help rebuild my cart and send me a PDF of it that would be great

Also this is not my first build I can never seem to decide what I want :)
 
considering how high your resolution is, I'd recommend the titan with 6gb of vram and much higher memory bandwidth. Maybe in about a few months or so, the price would drop around $600 thats when you can get a second titan which would help you max out all the games for years. Also note Titan is likely to hold higher resale value later on. the gtx680 is already old news IMHO. While I like the gtx680/690 series, I am not a big fan of their poor memory bit rates- it makes them somewhat vulnerable against future competitions. Since your willing to spend soo much, get the titan.
 
While I like the titan.. i don't see the titan dropping down to 200$ then everyone would just buy the GTX 680 classy because it held the world record before the titan come out for single GPU benches.. but yes if you need the extra vram.. like shammy said.. get the TITAN
 
Buy the Titan there are waterblocks for it or you can get the EVGA Hydro version with the block installed. The GTX 680 4GB is just a gimmick with no real world performance advantage over the 2GB variant. Many especially in this forum do not see to understand the relationship between the memory bus width and vram.

Now the Titan has massive bandwidth and most probably overclock quite high with a waterblock closing the gap the GTX 690 has over it. A 360 radiator will sufficiently cool both your CPU and GPU. If you go SLI I would add another 240 radiator to the loop.
 
If you look at the graphs between gtx 680 sli and even worse the 7970 GHz crossx the microstutter is nearly double than the gtx 690. Both double cards push more wattage than the gtx 690, and for people such as myself that don't have a sli enable MB's or dont have the room it gives you a shot at awesome performance
 
Titan is out of the question.

GTX 690 is my recommendation. 2x680 = better price/performance, but the 690 is a compact solution, and won't cause the same heat issues you'll get by stacking 680's
 
I would personally go with the titan. The memory bandwidth is just crazy. Yes, the 690 gets better benchmark scores than the titan. But the screen lag for the titan is way better than anything else and if you were to over clock the titan, which you could push up to 1100mhz no problem if you up the speed of the fan, you will quickly close the gap in performance. And not all games are designed for multi gpus so the 690 doesn't perform equally foe all games. But the titan does.
 


9800gt best choice :)
 


Whaaaaaat?

Since when is more memory bandwidth an important factor for modern, high-end cards? And what is this screen lag? Titan getting 30-40 FPS less than the 690 is a form of 'screen lag', lol. Do you have a source for this assertion?
Also the Titan cannot be overclocked enough to close the rather large gap.

Can you name some modern games that don't work with SLI? I can't, and I have SLI. As soon as the newest drivers are out (usually before the game's release) or you add the game's SLI profile yourself, it is working....
 


I think he is referring to the microsuttering issues with SLI and (to a greater degree)crossfire.

Toms has investigated this and proven it. If you are bothered by microstuttering, the Titan is the only high end card to have.
 


SCREEN LAG.
 
SCREEN LAG.[/quotemsg]

lol thanks for that. As your helpful search demonstrated, "FPS latency, or micro-stuttering" are far more descriptive terms than SCREEN LAG, which doesn't convey much at all.

To the point, on modern GPU's, especially dual on a single board, micro-stuttering only becomes noticeable at low FPS. I personally don't let mine drop below 60, and adjust graphics quality if neccessary. You will notice micro-stuttering if playing around 30-40 FPS.
 


No problem... was trying to make it funny as people tend to be too serious.

 


The 690s do not scale well in Quad SLI, and the 2GB Vram for each gpu is somewhat meager for higher res gaming. You can add a second titan down the road, when you need more gpu power, and the 6gb of Vram is not going out of style anytime soon.