NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Review: Ultra Expensive, Ultra Rare, Ultra Fast
by Ryan Smith on May 3, 2012 9:00 AM ESTMetro 2033
Paired with Crysis as our second behemoth FPS is Metro: 2033. Metro gives up Crysis’ lush tropics and frozen wastelands for an underground experience, but even underground it can be quite brutal on GPUs, which is why it’s also our new benchmark of choice for looking at power/temperature/noise during a game. If its sequel due this year is anywhere near as GPU intensive then a single GPU may not be enough to run the game with every quality feature turned up.
Metro was another game that the GTX 680 had trouble with, leading to it trailing the 7970 by the slightest bit. With multiple GPUs thrown into the mix that slight gap has significantly widened, leading to the GTX 690 once again trailing the 7970CF, particularly at 2560 and 5760. In this case the GTX 690 is only hitting 82% of the 7970CF’s performance at 5760, and 84% at 2560. It’s only at 1920 (and 100fps) that the GTX 690 can catch up. So much like the GTX 680, NVIDIA’s not necessarily off to a great start here compared to AMD.
Meanwhile GTX 690 performance relative to the GTX 680 SLI once again looks good here, although not quite as great as with Crysis. At 5760 the GTX 690 achieves 96% of the performance, and at 2560 97% of the performance. So far the GTX 690 is more or less living up to NVIDIA’s claims of being two 680s on a single card.
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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. :)