GTX 690 Why / help thread (Games, GPU, help topic)

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AnandThenMan

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2004
3,991
626
126
Back when 8800s launched? Sure. Even 512 was fine. 320 pushed it.
We're talking about now not ancient history. We go through this every time, the excuses come out to justify why a certain amount of memory is "enough." More is always better, if card A and B have the same performance TODAY, the 3gig card is better than the 2 gigabyte one going forward. The justifications for the lower amount are borne out of brand preference and sometimes bias, not what is better over the long term ownership of the card.

Right now on the high end 3 gigs is good, 4 is better IMO. 2 is pushing it, 6 is overkill.
 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
27,052
357
126
You might run out of Vram. Some games you'll have to turn off AA and lower settings. You got plenty of GPU power for large multi screen resolutions, but not enough vram. I am puzzled that Nvidia advertises the 690 as a multi monitor monster when in fact it is gimped and suited for not much more than 1080p gaming as a result of that 2gb framebuffer.

My 670 SLI is doing fine at 2560x1440 (granted it's not 5760x1080). The 690 is slightly slower than my setup.

We're talking about now not ancient history. We go through this every time, the excuses come out to justify why a certain amount of memory is "enough." More is always better, if card A and B have the same performance TODAY, the 3gig card is better than the 2 gigabyte one going forward. The justifications for the lower amount are borne out of brand preference and sometimes bias, not what is better over the long term ownership of the card.

Right now on the high end 3 gigs is good, 4 is better IMO. 2 is pushing it, 6 is overkill.

Not all games even modded are using 2GB for real. People using afterburner often get inaccurate readings.
 

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
5,457
63
101
My 670 SLI is doing fine at 2560x1440 (granted it's not 5760x1080). The 690 is slightly slower than my setup.



Not all games even modded are using 2GB for real. People using afterburner often get inaccurate readings.

That doesn't change that buying a 2GB $1000 GPU (or more than one card, for that matter) for multi-monitor, high resolution gaming, is selling yourself short.
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
14
81
My 670 SLI is doing fine at 2560x1440 (granted it's not 5760x1080). The 690 is slightly slower than my setup.



Not all games even modded are using 2GB for real. People using afterburner often get inaccurate readings.

My modded Skyrim is pushing roughly 2.8gb vram usage with 4xaa @ 2560x1600. I don't even have it loaded up with any recent mods though so I'm sure It would be pretty easy to push it past 3gb now
 

T1geR

Junior Member
Sep 30, 2012
9
0
0
Translation: I spent an ungodly sum of money on a GTX 690 and want to tell you guys about it but wanted to prebuff my self against "wow your system is seriously bottlenecking your extremely pricey GPU"?

Congrats I guess, I'd personally sell that thing and buy a much more reasonable card, but what ever floats your boat.
 

T_Yamamoto

Lifer
Jul 6, 2011
15,007
795
126
Translation: I spent an ungodly sum of money on a GTX 690 and want to tell you guys about it but wanted to prebuff my self against "wow your system is seriously bottlenecking your extremely pricey GPU"?

Congrats I guess, I'd personally sell that thing and buy a much more reasonable card, but what ever floats your boat.

Congrats for trying to size up epeen OP.

You get a 690 to run two monitors. pretty pathetic and a waste.
 

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
1,810
0
71
Just buy a third 2333T and do surround.

2Gb will be enough for most unmodded games.
 

DPOverLord

Golden Member
Dec 20, 1999
1,980
1
86
Guys, I am not looking for props, I thought I would see a larger performance increase. Obviously I don't so it was a waste. It was an impulsive buy, and not well thought out. Now I am trying to make it work.