Traded GTX 670 SLI for GTX 690

[saratoga172]

I recently had a unique opportunity to do a straight trade of my GTX 670's for a GTX 690.

Quick background: Had two MSI OC 670's in SLI that were running bone stock. Very fast, very good performance. Running all games maxed on my Dell U3011 monitor.

Had an opportunity to swap those for a GTX 690 at no cost. At first I was hesitant because I thought performance was on par and I didn't want the hassle of swapping out more hardware.

After looking at reviews and benchmarks I realized the GTX 690 was a bit better performance wise than my 670's and jumped on it.

Not only is the performance about 10% better, but the card itself runs very cool, sucks up less energy so my computer as a whole is using less power/running cooler, and the card itself is made of much higher quality materials. The card feels like it will last unlike the plastic on the 670's. On top of that it has much more overclocking headroom. I haven't really pushed it yet because it kills everything I play.

My current games:
BF3
SC2
CS:S
L4D2
CS:GO
Star Wars: The Old Republic

All are played on my 30 with maxed out settings. All stay above 60fps.
Thinking about a 120hz monitor. Maybe 3d. Thoughts? How do they compare to gaming on a 30 inch monitor. being that it's on my desk I've often contemplated going back to my 24 for gaming.

The last sealing factor for me was that I could sell the 690 for a profit and buy more 670's for SLI if I wanted.

I don't have actual performance numbers but if you've got some questions feel free to ask me.

Necroed, so locked. -Admin DrPizza

 

[toyota]

all but one of those games would stay above 60fps with a single gtx670 and in some cases even a much slower card.

 

[notty22]

I say good trade. The 690 is full of positive engineering component tweaks, and if your particular card is running well, enjoy.

 

[saratoga172]

all but one of those games would stay above 60fps with a single gtx670 and in some cases even a much slower card.

While yes it would pay them all above 60 it was not a solid above 60 when the screen got busy playing at 2560x1600.

Cs:s and sc2 never really had issues but bf3 and star wars benefit from the extra power. Plus any games I buy in the future. I'll have the card for at least a couple years.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[saratoga172]

I say good trade. The 690 is full of positive engineering component tweaks, and if your particular card is running well, enjoy.

Thanks, it's running great so far! The engineering of the card is truly amazing. From the power management to the speed of the card being right there with two 680's in sli.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[blackened23]

I had a 690 for a while and its a nice card for sure, although it was a nightmare to overclock in hindsight. The GPUs can definitely get hot (80C+ at load) You will hit the power limit quite often, but then again....its fast enough for nearly anything at stock.

 

[3DVagabond]

I'd say you got a great deal. Not just because the 690 is a more expensive card to begin with, but because it's a really well engineered card. The 690 might be cool to keep because it's such a limited commodity. I'm not saying it will ever be worth anything, just that it's really nice. Like a Mercedes is nice.

Edit: Oh, I'd rather have a 2560*1600 monitor than a 1920*1080 that runs at 120Hz and the color/viewing angle sucks on.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Edit: Oh, I'd rather have a 2560*1600 monitor than a 1920*1080 that runs at 120Hz and the color/viewing angle sucks on.

I have both a Dell U2711 and a 120Hz BenQ XL2420T

Higher resolution and IQ really doesn't hold up against the superior motion quality and response time when it comes to faster paced games.

of the games the OP lists, I wouldn't dream of using a higher res IPS monitor on any of them except maybe Star Wars: The Old Republic, or Star Craft 2 if its just for single player. The shooters, especially if played competitively via online play, will be and order of magnitude more enjoyable on the faster monitor.

 

[Hauk]

I've ran multi-gpu for years now, but have long considered a single card dual gpu monster. The ability to adequately space dual cards in a roomy case (to keep gpu's cooler and fans quieter) has factored in for me. Dual gpu flagships are sexy and elegant though; with the 690 being the sexiest, best designed, highest quality card to date. You're in a club now. It's like owning one Bentley vs. two Chevy's. Nice trade.

 

[blackened23]

I have both a Dell U2711 and a 120Hz BenQ XL2420T

Higher resolution and IQ really doesn't hold up against the superior motion quality and response time when it comes to faster paced games.

of the games the OP lists, I wouldn't dream of using a higher res IPS monitor on any of them except maybe Star Wars: The Old Republic, or Star Craft 2 if its just for single player. The shooters, especially if played competitively via online play, will be and order of magnitude more enjoyable on the faster monitor.

2560x monitors are much better than 23-24-27 inch 120hz monitors. Just IMO of course

I will never go back to 1080p, it looks like trash especially on 27" displays. Its like watching 1080p blu rays for the first time compared to low resolution DVDs, the resolution difference is very nice.

 

[hokies83]

Being a former duel gpu card owner.. 2x gtx 295 and 2x gtx 590s..

I can tell you they are crazy hard to resale when a new Generation gpu is released..

Also if your 670s overclocked by any means they would be faster then 1 690 and a heck of alot easyer to resale when the time comes.

 

[f1sherman]

670s overclocked by any means they would be faster then 1 690

Kinda doubt that

690 is a little bit different beast in many regards then all the previous duals

 

[hokies83]

Kinda doubt that

690 is a little bit different beast in many regards then all the previous duals

2 680s spank a 690..

a 670 is with in 5% of a 680.. a 670 can very easy overclock to past 5% performance.

I have 2 680s but i benched the Antec 620 modded one at 1350mhz/+500 memory

A 670 at 1420mhz/600 memory was matching me. and 1350mhz/+500 memory is a hefty overclock on a 680.

With that said.. best Overclock ive seen on a 690 was around 1220mhz.. Depending on the 670 Avg overclock i see on a 670 is about 1250mhz.

 

[notty22]

2 680s spank a 690..

a 670 is with in 5% of a 680.. a 670 can very easy overclock to past 5% performance.

I have 2 680s but i benched the Antec 620 modded one at 1350mhz/+500 memory

A 670 at 1420mhz/600 memory was matching me. and 1350mhz/+500 memory is a hefty overclock on a 680.

With that said.. best Overclock ive seen on a 690 was around 1220mhz.. Depending on the 670 Avg overclock i see on a 670 is about 1250mhz.

I don't agree. They are in the same ballpark.
The gtx 690 has a pci-e 3.0 bridge chip on board which helps its performance. If you look at the review of the 690, the review on this site, the results were eye opening. Being maybe 5% slower at max o/c's is not getting spanked.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5805/...view-ultra-expensive-ultra-rare-ultra-fast/18

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[hokies83]

I was talking stock vs stock..

Now overclocking the gap is only going to get bigger.. Because the 680s overclock much better then the 690

Ran the metro 2033 benchmark on same settings and got avg of 80 Fps.

 

[cmdrdredd]

My setup is getting averages above 75FPS on metro using the same settings. I'm only at 1243 boost clocks and relatively low 6772Mhz memory.

I haven't yet found a 690 that overclocks that far although someone probably got lucky.

I do like the 690 over a pair of 670s just for the cleaner look of a single card and it eliminates any concerns of cards needing airflow etc as a single card is going to have fewer issues in this regard.

 

[blackened23]

Notty, you're great at arguing with graphs but unfortunately he is correct. SLI 680s are quite a bit faster and have better OC headroom by far. The fact of the matter is you won't get far trying to overclock a 690, now maybe nvidia sent hand picked 690s out to reviewers but I assure it is not easy to overclock. The GPUs even in great cases will go past 80C quite often and will hit the thermal threshold / power threshold constantly, in fact I had to revert my 690s to stock settings or they would crash after 45 minutes of heaven or crysis 2. This is a cosmos 2 case, the best air cooled case on the market.

I have lightning 680s now and I can tell you that these cards score about 3k higher in 3dmark11, and they basically destroy the 690. My metro 2033 benchmark scores went up by around 20 fps compared to the gtx 690, and that isn't even with my maximum overclock - at max OCs they are even faster in comparison to the 690. The 690 is a great card don't get me wrong, but most people will NOT have much luck overclocking it. Those GPUs get hot, and they hit thermal / power threshold a LOT in demanding games. I used the card for around a month so I have a good feel for how well it OCs - it could OC for 10 minutes at a time up to 1250 each, which is great for canned benchmarks but the GPUs get very hot over time unless you use aggressive manual fan settings.

Basically in my case the 690 would overclock for around 10-15 minutes at a time, after which point the thermal throttle or power % throttle will kick in without fail. Another great thing about nvidia being jerks about overclocking, the 690 is case in point. You can overclock it for 15 minutes at a time though RIGHT BEFORE KEPLER THROTTLE KICKS IN, which is great if you're into canned benchmarks.

Again, i'm not saying its a bad card but trying to sell it based on overclocking, I dunno. There are tons of people at the EVGA forum who even have their 690s water cooled and can't get more than 50 offset stable. The GPUs run into big problems with power / temp throttle when attempting overclocking, but it will work short term. 10-15 minutes max. After that, best of luck when you get a TDR from passing power % or temp threshold.

I'm not even sure if you have a kepler - perhaps you don't understand how thermal throttle and power throttle can adversely affect overclocking. Again - works great for 10 minute time chunks but you can't get a good 24/7 OC going with those kind of limitations. Which is why I would prefer 680s if I wanted to overclock. (something along the lines of asus dc2 or msi lightning)

 

[cmdrdredd]

Wow I didn't realize it was THAT bad lol. However, what I said stands. From a standpoint of less to worry about a single card 690 is IMO a little bit better than dual 670s. For example if you got crashes or artifacting on an SLI setup it would be more work to diagnose what card is casuing it and troubleshoot down. That said, overclocked 670s or 680s would win no contest if matched up against a 690 in benches.

blackened, what do you have your 680s overclocked to currently? It's not listed in your sig. Or do you just run stock 24/7 and occationally fire up an overclocked profile to test new drivers and whatnot?

 

[blackened23]

I'm not saying its bad. I'm just saying don't get too excited about overclocking - IMO, the 690 is not the best overclocker out there. I know there are some online reviews saying that it OCs okay, but trust me - throttling is a big problem for 24/7 oc'ing with the 690. Mine would do crazy overclocks in 10 minute time chunks, but always failed with long term overclocks.

Its a great card if you are running stock speeds, and to be fair most 690s will boost to around 1150 out of the box. That puts it squarely between 670 sli and 680 sli. Also, i'm using my lightnings at around 1320ish in SLI. I'm not using the LN2 BIOS or anything, I can go a lot higher if I use LN2 / over voltage but none of my games really need it.

 

[3DVagabond]

The OP didn't ask whether he should buy 2x670's or a 690. 2x670's @ ~20% less $ is a no brainer. Even swap though, and I'll take the 690. Have some here forgotten just how nice of a card the 690 is and forgotten how minimalistic a lot of the 670's are?

 

[blackened23]

The OP didn't ask whether he should buy 2x670's or a 690. 2x670's @ ~20% less $ is a no brainer. Even swap though, and I'll take the 690. Have some here forgotten just how nice of a card the 690 is and forgotten how minimalistic a lot of the 670's are?

Yep, missed that part. 690 is definitely an easy decision there

 

[hokies83]

The OP didn't ask whether he should buy 2x670's or a 690. 2x670's @ ~20% less $ is a no brainer. Even swap though, and I'll take the 690. Have some here forgotten just how nice of a card the 690 is and forgotten how minimalistic a lot of the 670's are?

It is a huge improvement over a Gtx 590 no doubt about that.

It is 2 gtx 680s what it suffers from is not being able to clock very well.

Making a true 680 Sli config Much faster.

And 90% of 670s will hit 1200mhz+ the gap between a 680 and a 670 is so tiny.. i donno what Nvidia was thinking..

 

[3DVagabond]

It is a huge improvement over a Gtx 590 no doubt about that.

It is 2 gtx 680s what it suffers from is not being able to clock very well.

Making a true 680 Sli config Much faster.

And 90% of 670s will hit 1200mhz+ the gap between a 680 and a 670 is so tiny.. i donno what Nvidia was thinking..

I have a theory.

They'd rather sell the fully functioning GK104's as Quadro cards for $K's. They still want to compete though with AMD. The 680 is mainly used as a placeholder in the consumer marketplace, but not really priced competitively. The 670, OTOH is priced for bang/$ to compete with Tahiti and does very well. If they lowered the price of the 680 it would merely compete with the 670 and take chips away from the Quadro market.

Like I said, just a theory.

 

[saratoga172]

Yep, missed that part. 690 is definitely an easy decision there

Lol you guys crack me up.

I was lucky enough to get a straight trade.

Reasons I went this route:
Easier to configure and ensure games are working right.
Much cleaner look in the case with one slot vs two being used.
Better air flow.
The card is very solid and engineered well.
Looking at performance numbers it is on par with dual 680's. Which in turn beat the 670's a little. Yes it doesn't overclock as much but I really don't need to right now.

Anyways thanks for the replies and suggestions regarding the monitor. Looking for one under $300. Preferably 250ish. But I want to see a demo first.

I'll try to get some hard numbers for my card in the next week or so.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[3DVagabond]

Lol you guys crack me up.

I was lucky enough to get a straight trade.

Reasons I went this route:
Easier to configure and ensure games are working right.
Much cleaner look in the case with one slot vs two being used.
Better air flow.
The card is very solid and engineered well.
Looking at performance numbers it is on par with dual 680's. Which in turn beat the 670's a little. Yes it doesn't overclock as much but I really don't need to right now.

Anyways thanks for the replies and suggestions regarding the monitor. Looking for one under $300. Preferably 250ish. But I want to see a demo first.

I'll try to get some hard numbers for my card in the next week or so.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I'm definitely on your side here. @ $1K+ the 690 isn't really worth it, IMO. It's a beautiful card and a great piece of engineering though. Nicer than 2x670's.