Question Why does no one talk about the GTX 690?

Crazyy8

Prominent
Sep 22, 2023
148
115
760
I have seen plenty of GPU tier lists and reviews about the 600 series, and most of them seem to skip mentioning the GTX 690. I'm pretty sure it existed, and was the top tier for the 600 series, so why does almost nobody talk about it? Did it come out long after the release of the original 600 series(Like the 1080 Ti, sort of), or was it a limited run too expensive for most to obtain? I see plenty of reviews of the GTX 670(and the 680 was on the best Nvidia GPUs thing), so why not review the 690? I mean, the GTX 690 started the streak of industrial looking Nvidia GPUs that sort of ended with the 1080 Ti(you could count the 2080 Ti since it still has a shiny metal polish).
EDIT: I found this article: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-devil13-7970-x2,3329.html
Still, the GTX 690 can be seen missing on some GPU lists from other websites.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Order 66
so why not review the 690
Review 01: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-690-benchmark,3193.html
Review 02: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-gtx-690/
Review 03: https://www.anandtech.com/show/5805...-review-ultra-expensive-ultra-rare-ultra-fast
Google-Fu master :ouimaitre: has talked. :sol:

so why does almost nobody talk about it?
At current date, what is there to talk about this GPU? It's 11 years old and was rare GPU to find even at launch, let alone as of today.
Sure, there are few AIB versions,
specs: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-690.c361
 
  • Like
Reactions: Order 66
Review 01: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-690-benchmark,3193.html
Review 02: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-gtx-690/
Review 03: https://www.anandtech.com/show/5805...-review-ultra-expensive-ultra-rare-ultra-fast
Google-Fu master :ouimaitre: has talked. :sol:


At current date, what is there to talk about this GPU? It's 11 years old and was rare GPU to find even at launch, let alone as of today.
Sure, there are few AIB versions,
specs: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-690.c361
Relative to other GPUs, it's not as publicized. I have checked a few review websites and articles that mention the 600 series and they don't mention the 690.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Order 66
It was pointless outside of the few games that supported SLI at the time. If said game didn't support SLI, then you would probably be forced to disable one of the GPUs turning it into an expensive GTX 680. Though according to TPU the 690 outperforms the 680 by 59% which doesn't make sense considering the fact that games don't support SLI anymore.
 
A lot of games did support SLI and Crossfire back then. I had SLI GTX580 about the time the 690 came out. Dual 680 was also generally the same cost or cheaper and superior too. More cooling, higher clock speeds and no added PLX chip. GTX690 was certainly dense, and you could do quad SLI, but that itself required HEDT chips and really pricey motherboards. The gains from having 4 GPUs vs 2 or 3 was certainly not worth it.

Most games where you are actually after max FPS tended to have it. And anything on the latest games engines did.

I also had SLI GTX980, that was when it really started getting pointless. Unreal engine 4? itself dropped support for SLI so I made the switch to a single 1080. People eventually added SLI support back into Unreal, but that was up to each developer. (Though I admit I stopped following that since I dropped SLI)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Order 66
I have 2 GTX 690's and there show pieces at least to me. It was Doom 2016 that axed the usefulness of the GTX 690. Game play was at a snails pace back than. Something about how the SLI "on one card" was bridged is where it tanked.

Funny fast forward a couple of years and newer NON SLI drivers and Doom 2016 now rocks on the card in SLI !

As far as games that won't play in SLI , take Serious Sam 4 on half the card runs faster than my Titan X Pascal ? Lower FPS but the game plays super smooth and fast on high settings.

I guess the best way to describe the faster game play is if your using VLC to watch a movie you can speed up the movie and watch in faster speeds or x2. This card runs games like that.

In some games you can get the drop on NPC before there AI even knows your behind them.

The only game I have to date that complains is Cyberpunk 2077 game plays but its to dark to to see what's going on. Don't know if it's the GTX 690 or the 600 series.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Order 66