NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Review: Ultra Expensive, Ultra Rare, Ultra Fast
by Ryan Smith on May 3, 2012 9:00 AM ESTTotal War: Shogun 2
Total War: Shogun 2 is the latest installment of the long-running Total War series of turn based strategy games, and alongside Civilization V is notable for just how many units it can put on a screen at once. As it also turns out, it’s the single most punishing game in our benchmark suite (on higher end hardware at least).
Unfortunately for NVIDIA they’re in a bit of a bind with Shogun 2. The March 22nd patch effectively broke Kepler performance under certain situations. GTX 680 performance has been nearly halved due to that patch; what was 33fps at 2560 is now 18fps. As near as we can tell this is a problem with the game – Shogun 2 wouldn’t know what the GTX 680 is and suddenly doesn’t know what to do with it – but the end result is that GTX 680/690 users are in trouble here.
As it stands 2560 is utterly broken – perhaps due to MSAA or shadowing – but our results at 5760 and 1920, which use the Very High profile, have not dropped due to the patch and as aresult we have at least some confidence in them. To that end while NVIDIA’s multi-GPU scaling is quite good at 5760 at 95%, not only does AMD have a lead over the GTX 680 with a single 7970, but Crossfire scaling is nearly perfect. Furthermore the GTX 690 once more has trouble boosting here, leading to a 7% deficit compared to the GTX 680 SLI. As a result the GTX 690 only reaches 85% of the performance of the 7970CF here. Things look better at 1920, but besides being a rather low resolution for the GTX 690 we’re also CPU limited by that point.
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InsaneScientist - Sunday, May 6, 2012 - link
Well, let's be fair... it's not nVidia's fault. It's TSMC that can't get their act together to produce 28nm chips in volume.CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 6, 2012 - link
The GTX680 has sold more card by the verified reviewers at NewEgg than the entire lot of the 7870's and 7850's at NewEgg combined, and that's just with ONE GTX680 sold by EVGA - check it out my friend...ROFL
GTX680 in one listing outsells the entire lineup of 7870 and 7850 COMBINED at newegg- with verified owners count.
HAHAHA
Yes, the supply is always "key". ROFL
vladanandtechy - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
I must confess that every logic i can think of says i don't need this GPU.....but.....i want it....i don't need it.....but damn it....i want it.....it's nvidia....it's aluminium....it's 4 GB VRAM....it's probably 5 times faster than what i have.......and i want to congratulate the team for the review wich i read from start to finish...but to be honest with you.....you don't need 19 pages to describe it...for me...."futureproof" says it all....mamisano - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Is there any way you can post the average FPS achieved during OCCT tests? Curious how 680 SLI, 690 and 7970 CF compare in this regard.Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Sorry, but we don't currently record that data (though if it's a big enough deal we can certainly start).Filiprino - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Simply put, NVIDIA has superior software department in comparison with AMD.AMD is mainstream. Whenever they try to reach the high end, they fail miserably, both on GPU and CPU camps. Driver issues with crossfire, trifire and quadfire with or without eyefinity in numerous games (with eyefinity even more problems) etc.
If they don't get their problems solved by Catalyst 12.5 buying AMD cards for high end builds (anything multicard related) is a waste of money. And that is sad.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Yes, and the reviewer is constantly trying to catch nVidia in a big lie - and it shows - he even states how he never believed a word nVidia said about this card but had to admit it was all true.I have never, in many years, seen the same bad attitude given to amd's gpu's.
The bias in the write up is so blatant every time it's amazing they still get nVidia cards for review. The reviewer is clearly so pro amd he cannot hide it.
N4g4rok - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
He did say that Crossfire was so broken that he couldn't recommend it. He's been pointing out flaws in both companies along the way I think you should dial back the bias accusations a little bit.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Well if you want me to point out like 10 blatant direct wordings in this article I will. I'm not the only one who sees it, by the way. you want to tell me how he avoids totally broken amd drivers when he's posting the 7970CF ? Not like he had a choice there, your point is absolutely worthless.silverblue - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Okay then, for our benefit (because we're stupid and that), please point out the reviewer's transgressions.