GTX 690 vs GTX 680 SLI for 3D Vision Surround

cesartalks

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Jan 20, 2013
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I plan on using 3D Vision Surround for a future build on three 1080p monitors.

I was wondering if I would get better performance with a GTX690 or a GTX680 SLI.

With the GTX680 option I would most likely be getting the 4GB Gigabyte Windforce models, and for the GTX690 I would get the EVGA model.

All input is appreciated :)
 

piggy321

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Dec 13, 2012
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I would Definitely got with the 680's cheaper, better and you can add another in the future however I would much rather take 2 Radeon 7970 GHZ edition over the 680's.
And how far away will this future build be?
 

JJ1217

Honorable
I don't know about you, but I am a silence freak. The 690 Fan is really good, it really keeps the temps down and its quite quiet.

Dual 680's would give you more performance, but at a cost of heat, power, noise.

The only problem with the 690 is the 2GB. 2GB is simply not enough for three monitors. Also remember that AMD tend to perform better on multi-monitor solutions. I would recommend a 7970, as 4GB with a 680 would be too much and probably never used. Two highly overclocked 7970 GHZ would be cheaper and easily defeat two 680's with three monitors.
 

burritobob

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Nov 14, 2012
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I'm a bit confused do you know the specs of each card...?

The 690 has 4gb vram on it. That is plenty but please don't be a fool and say that it only has 2.
The 680 stock has 2gb vram on it. You can get different versions that have 4gb on them.
The 7970 stock has 3gb gram on it. You will see a better performance at such a high resolution from the 7970 BUT the key factor is, is that you won't get 3D, that is a nvidia based technology.

So if you want to sacrifice 3D for a system that will outperform the 680x2 and the 690, go for the 7970s because in MOST benchmarks at HIGH resolutions those triumph over every other card.

EDIT: If you end up going the AMD route this is probably the best card right now: http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/MATRIXHD79703GD5
 

Kamen_BG

Distinguished
This is one of the best HD 7970's.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
It's one of the most affordable too.

Or if you want it to be extremely silent and run even cooler, take a look at the Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
This HD7970 however uses three expansion slots which can cause problems if you're going to add another one in the future.

By the way AMD cards perform much better than their Nvidia competitors at high resolutions. Especially in multi monitor setups.
But AMD's cards also use more power and heat up your case more, so if you're going with the AMD cards, make sure that you've got a high quality power supply that can provide at the very least 50A on the 12V rail (or just a >650W PSU)

 

JJ1217

Honorable


Oh yes I skipped over the 3D part without realising. But you are the fool for the 690 part, the 690 does NOT come with 4GB of VRAM on it, it comes with 2GB effective. That means 2GB on each GPU, which is really only 2GB. So you are the fool.