GTX 690 or SLi 680 Lightnings

[Thebrave246]

Which way should I go with my new gaming setup? I have a Corsair AX850 80 plus gold power supply. i5 3570K cpu, Gigabyte z77x-ud3h motherboard, 16GB ddr3 Kingston 1600 memory.

I would rather save the room in my case and just get the GTX 690, even though I may be losing a couple frames here and there to be honest. What do you guys think? It's also a bit more expensive for two 680 lightnings, or two 680s in general really. I wouldn't want reference 680's anyway.

 

[blackened23]

If you want performance 680 lightning is the easy answer. The only reason to get a 690 is if you don't have an SLI motherboard, since the cost of both are equal.

 

[Thebrave246]

I want performance but I also want efficiency and space-saving. The 690 will both be power efficient, space saving and of course the performance will be there dude, plus I could get another 690 for sli in the future if need be.

 

[BrightCandle]

The 690 tends to be louder but cheaper. It doesn't perform quite as well but there isn't much in it. I did you used to the dual cards but with the 7970 and 680s I got 2 separate cards. There are less trade offa, they over clock better and don't get as hot. But its more expensive, takes up more slots and pumps out more heat but with less noise.

 

[blackened23]

I've owned both. The performance of the lightnings are definitely better be an appreciable margin - with an overclock its enough to be 15-20 fps faster in some games. The lightnings overclock way, way, way, way better.

Things to consider with the 690:

Voltage locked
Susceptible to kepler throttle at 70C
Gets hot when vsync is turned off
You won't get far overclocking
Going quad SLI IMO, is just stupid. Tri and Quad scaling is garbage - 2 is best.

Lightnings:

Much better OC headroom
You can disable kepler throttle
Not locked like other nvidia cards, just apply the proper BIOS


You do what you want but i'm telling you. The 690 was really annoying because when I tried overclocking it, it would without fail ALWAYS hit the kepler throttle threshold which completely ruined my OC, if not crash. Many times it would crash in the process of attempting any OC, whereas I can OC my MSI lightnings by 200mhz no problem at all. Bottom line is the 690 is worth it if you REALLY care about how cool a card looks without caring about performance, or if you don't want to spare another slot.

Quad SLI scaling is also a joke in most games. Don't bother. The noise is a non issue. You can apply a custom fan profile to the lightnings and it will be the same or better than the 690 in most cases - The 690 gets HOT. This means that if you want max performance - you need a high manual fan profile on the 690 which IS NOT quiet. If you play something like Crysis 2 or metro 2033 with vsync off for an hour its going to be mid 80s. That means you're in kepler throttle zone. That means your overclock is gone.

If you care anything about performance the 690 is the wrong move. But, if you care more about having a neat looking gizmo and having 1 less slot taken, get the 690.

 

[Thebrave246]

I'd rather sacrifice a bit of performance increase I'd get from overclocking single 680s to outperform the 690, so I can save the space in my case, more ventilation, room for expansion/interface cards, and even a possibility of sli 690 if need be when I get couple more monitors.

I really have no need to really overclock the 690 much at all anyway. Maybe just a slight overclock past stock clocks. I wouldn't try any heavy overclocking or even moderate really either way with this card. I care more about saving the space in my case, better ventilation, and what I said in my previous post.

If quad-sli is a joke, then I'd probably keep the 690 see how the "Titan" is and maybe get that if it does in fact beat the 690 by a decent amount or maybe not.

 

[blackened23]

Well then why'd you ask? You already made up your mind yet you still made this thread.

Go buy a 690.

 

[Thebrave246]

Well then why'd you ask? You already made up your mind yet you still made this thread.

Go buy a 690.

I mean dude, I'm playing on a single monitor right now at 1080p, but thanks for telling me about the possible negatives to getting the 690 rather then the dual 680s. I understand I won't be able to overclock much and everything. I paid more for stability and space saving only dual slot card and efficiency. I am ok with only a minor-moderate overclock.

Thanks

 

[blackened23]

Titan may be worth waiting for as you already pointed out. Seems like overkill for 1080p though? Although you did mention the possibility of surround, which would make SLI or the titan worth it.