[Various] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Reviews - Page 5

Originally Posted by toX0rz 

uhh no.
Crysis = Crysis Warhead > Crysis 2
fix'd.

Originally Posted by jbobb 

I would still play all those "other" games even if I had another 680 or a 690. I don't buy cards just to play/bench Crysis or Metro. I buy the card because I know I will be able to crank up almost all settings in almost all games without issues and in future games, that will be more demanding, I will not have to worry. It isn't all just about getting high FPS in Crysis. It is still pretty playable at ~30-45 FPS that you could achieve with older cards. Hell, I played the Diablo 3 beta and my card downclocked to 650 Mhz core to keep 60 FPS. Does that mean I shouldn't even care about Diablo 3 because it isn't demanding enough?
In other words...you can play any game you want with 680's SLI or a 690.

Originally Posted by jtom320 

Id agree the card is overpriced. If any card is worthy of being a grand though this is it.

For all practical purposes the GTX 690 is a single card GTX 680 SLI – a single card GTX 680 SLI that consumes noticeably less power under load and is at least marginally quieter too.

With that said, this would typically be the part of the review where we would inject a well-placed recap of the potential downsides of multi-GPU technology; but in this case there’s really no need. Unlike the GTX 590 and unlike the GTX 295 NVIDIA is not making a performance tradeoff here compared to their single-GPU flagship card. When SLI works the GTX 690 is the fastest card out there, and when SLI doesn’t work the GTX 690 is still the fastest card out there. For the first time in a long time using a dual-GPU card doesn’t mean sacrificing single-GPU performance, and that’s a game changer.

At this point in time NVIDIA offers two different but compelling solutions for ultra-enthusiast performance; the GTX 690 and GTX 680 SLI, and they complement each other well. For most situations the GTX 690 is going to be the way to go thanks to its lower power consumption and lower noise levels, but for cases that need fully exhausting video cards the GTX 680 SLI can offer the same gaming performance at the same price. Unfortunately we’re going to have to put AMD out of the running here; as we’ve seen in games like Crysis and Metro the 7970 in Crossfire has a great deal of potential, but as it stands Crossfire is simply too broken overall to recommend.

The only real question I suppose is simply this: is the GTX 690 worthy of its $999 price tag? I don’t believe there’s any argument to be had with respect to whether the GTX 690 is worth getting over the GTX 680 SLI, as we’ve clearly answered that above. As a $999 card it doesn’t double the performance of the $499 GTX 680, but SLI has never offered quite that much of a performance boost. However at the same time SLI has almost always been good enough to justify the cost of another GPU if you must have performance better than what the fastest single GPU can provide, and this is one of those times.

Is $999 expensive? Absolutely. Is it worth it? If you’re gaming at 2560x1600 or 5760x1200, the GTX 690 is at least worth the consideration. You can certainly get by on less, but if you want 60fps or better and you want it with the same kind of ultra high quality single GPU cards can already deliver at 1920x1080, then you can’t do any better than the GTX 690.

In order to distinguish the lines better, we recommend to click on the desired selection, so the lines are in bold.

It can be difficult to see that the frame distribution is for a single GPU configuration best: Complete is identical to frame output on the GeForce GTX 690 does not, however, can be in Serious Sam 3, which is very sensitive to micro stuttering, detect a halt . Quite different from AMD's Crossfire: What the chart "wild" look (the frame is output alternately 15-62 milliseconds), also feels the same to. At 30 frames per second Serious Sam 3 is in Crossfire mode unplayable. As of 40 frames per second it gets a little better, really easy to play but the title is only at 50 FPS. In other games, the effect is less pronounced extent, present in the basic form but the same. The Crossfire team dubbed consisting of two Radeon HD 7970 cards these disadvantage mostly by the very large capacity.

With the GeForce GTX 680 in SLI mode can see the frame Times not only significantly better (frame Issue 49-21 milliseconds), but it feels even better. Although you can feel the stuttering at 30 FPS without further notice, starting at 40 frames per second, but they are as good as gone. Playable from the Title 40 FPS and even 30 frames per second is let stand for a short time.

The results of the GeForce GTX 690 have surprised us. Because the frame is distributed from 42 to 29 milliseconds which is again clearly better than in the normal SLI system. Even at 30 frames per second, we can see only a minimal difference to the single GPU configuration, which are so completely playable! In other titles, repeated this result, it is therefore justified not only with the game.

To what extent the improved performance is to transfer the micro stuttering in the future to other Kepler graphics card, unfortunately we can only guess, since Nvidia does not wish to comment further about the feature. In addition, we can not check whether the launch of the GeForce GTX 690 driver behavior also shows a normal SLI configuration, since we currently have no second GeForce GTX 680 card.

As mentioned Serious Sam 3 is an extreme case in terms of micro stuttering. Other games but also show the phenomenon, but to a lesser extent.

Originally Posted by cold2010 

Micro stuttering

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-690/8/#abschnitt_mikroruckler

Originally Posted by Shadowness 

I dont really care if people are gonna laugh at me. But, i'd probably get this card this summer for 1080p gaming if things go all right. And you can bet, that i am 100% serious.
In case of demanding games i see the GTX690 being almost able to hit and stay at 120 FPS. Which is exactly what i need. I expect 3D performance to be as good.