NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Review: Ultra Expensive, Ultra Rare, Ultra Fast
by Ryan Smith on May 3, 2012 9:00 AM ESTCompute Performance
For our look at compute performance this is going to be a brief look. Our OpenGL AES and DirectCompute Fluid Simulation benchmarks simply don’t scale with multiple GPUs, so we’ll skip though (though the data is still available in Bench).
Our first compute benchmark comes from Civilization V, which uses DirectCompute to decompress textures on the fly. Civ V includes a sub-benchmark that exclusively tests the speed of their texture decompression algorithm by repeatedly decompressing the textures required for one of the game’s leader scenes. Note that this is a DX11 DirectCompute benchmark.
Given the nature of the benchmark, it’s not surprising that we see a performance regression here with some setups. The nature of this benchmark is that it doesn’t split across multiple GPUs well, though that doesn’t stop AMD and NVIDIA from tying. This doesn’t impact real game performance as we’ve seen, but it’s a good reminder of the potential pitfalls of multi-GPU configurations. Though AMD does deserve some credit here for gaining on their single GPU performance, pushing their lead even higher.
Our other compute benchmark is SmallLuxGPU, the GPU ray tracing branch of the open source LuxRender renderer. We’re now using a development build from the version 2.0 branch, and we’ve moved on to a more complex scene that hopefully will provide a greater challenge to our GPUs.
Unlike the Civ V compute benchmark, SLG scales very well with multiple GPUs, nearly doubling in performance. Unfortunately for NVIDIA GK104 shows its colors here as a compute-weak GPU, and even with two of them we’re nowhere close to one 7970, let alone the monster that is two. If you’re looking at doing serious GPGPU compute work, you should be looking at Fermi, Tahiti, or the future Big Kepler.
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paul878 - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Nvidia is getting very good at building Vaporware.paul878 - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Nvidia is getting very good and making Vaporware.krumme - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Is 6000 pcx. within the first month fx. a paper launch in your view?As selling numbers in that size, does nothing for the economy directly, what do you think is the strategic choices behind putting it on "sale" now?
How do you think marketing at NV thinks about how they can tailor perception from the reviewers on what is perciewed as a paper launch?
Do NV marketing present themselves as one of your kind, having the same background, understanding your dilemmas and problems?
mac2j - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Wonder what the 7990 will look like next month. AMD clearly waited on purpose to see how the 690 was going to perform. They easily could have released a dual 7970 card already or at the very least sent specs to card manufacturers but they haven't.We know they left a lot of headroom on the 7970 - some people have even suggested we'll get a 7980 at some point - wonder if now we'll get 2 x fully clocked 7970s on the same card ... will be interesting to see how they deal with that power consumption at load though.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
With 2x7970 @ STOCK they are already 175 watts over the 690's power draw.Good luck with that "headroom".
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
amd is late to the race, they never showed up this time, and when they do, they will lose, think housefires.Beenthere - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Really? There are some sick people in this world. ;)Nfarce - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
No, unlike OWS protesters, there are some successful people in this world who get off their butts and work hard enough to be able to afford a $1,000 GPU (or in my case 2 GTX 680 $530 GPUs).anactoraaron - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
"Thus even four years since the release of the original Crysis, “but can it run Crysis?” is still an important question, and the answer when it comes to setups using a pair of high-end 28nm GPUs is “you better damn well believe it.”":D
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
No they actually cannot. 1920X, even the cf 7970 or 690 need help with lowered settings, as in many of the games. Can't even keep up with the 1920X monitors resolution refresh rate, set at a low 60.Sorry, more fantasies another for you perhaps. :)