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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Death666Angel - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Hey guys!Thanks for the article, I enjoyed the read (although I am not in the market for dual GPU configurations after trying the HD3870X2 and 2*8800GTS, happy with one 7970 OC'ed to the max.). But you seem to be missing the numbers for noise from the HD7970 in a CF configuration. I hope you can post them! :D
-DA
Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
This was mentioned on the Test page, but we don't have a matching pair of 7970 cards; what we have is a reference card and an XFX 7970 BEDD. Power and temperature are the same regardless, but it would be improper to list noise because of the completely different acoustic properties of the BEDD.Mygaffer - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
How does that stack up, especially price/performance? Why didn't your conclusion address that question at all? Totally limits the usefulness of the review in my opinion.rs2 - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
As per the data in your article, the GTX690 is clocked 10% below the GTX680, and has a 5% lower boost clock. This may be a small compromise, but it is a compromise nonetheless.More accuracy and less hyperbole, please.
pixelstuff - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Seems to me they should be saving money in the construction when compared to two 680 in SLI. Half the fans, half the connectors, have the circuit boards. They should have at least cut $50 off the suggested retail price.Also when will be see 3 of these running in SLI form?
Holler - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
you won't only one SLI connector.
not that impressed, i'll be holding on to my overclocked 1.5 GB TRI-SLI GTX 480 hydro coppers for the forseeable future, this card should atleast double the RAM it has now...
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, May 5, 2012 - link
Half the magnesium, half the aluminum, half the PLX chips, half the R&D, half the vapor chambers, half the chip binning, half the power circuits, half the copper pcb's.... oh no wait, all those are added expenses, not reductions...+
I guess they should be charging $200 over the 2x$499 dollar usual price.
See how actually using the facts, instead of sourpuss emotion delivers a different picture ?
will54 - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
These cards are sold out on Newegg for $1200 per. talk about taking advantage on a 20% markup over the msrp,hopefully AMD knocks the prices way down when they bring out there 7990, $800 sounds about right.faster - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
Now I need a new keyboard because I was drooling into mine as I read this review. I have a GTX 680, but I don;t like to run SLI setups - I had a bad experience with my dual 560ti's. This looks like a truly awesome card that would hold its value for resale later. Nevertheless, there is no way I'm spending a grand on a video card.Origin32 - Saturday, May 5, 2012 - link
I predict that the 790 will, finally, be able to run Crysis. Next year an era will end. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.