Graphics 580SLI vs. 690

I'm thinking of selling my 580s and replacing with a single 690.


Thoughts? Yay or nay? What say you good folks?

 

What are you going to use the Graphics Card for?

If it's gaming, Anandtech has the 690 beating a 580 SLI combination by about 10-20FPS depending on the game they chose.

edit: Found the benchmark suite if you want the 690's performance over 580 SLI in other areas.

Blowing money on the 690 is questionable unless you're really desperate for brilliant framerates and the 4GB GDDR5 memory.

 

I would wait and let someone else take the pludge from the consumer side and see what results they get.

Do you need it or is it because you want it?

And if you decide to not buy one....give me the money me=skint

 

Partly because I want it... but mainly because I game at 2560x1600 and nothing is ever fast enough... and also, more performance with less power draw.

 

oh this is a close one isnt it... 10 - 20 fps .. can you actually notice anything over 60?

was considering this move myself. But I have water cooled my ref cards now. The case is set up for water not with exceptional air flow... hmmm bugger.

Keeping eye on what you do (may be sheep and follow suit)

 

Go for GTX 680 SLI - you can always disable one if you experience microstutter or the likes. I'm not sure you can just disable a core on the GTX 690 :-/

 

...but if I get a 690 there's the option of adding another one later Still thinking... I'll see what this thread brings up in the way of opinion and ideas.

 

Im surprised your needing more power than your sli 580s at 2560x1600.

For the extra 500 quid odd I imagine you will only see a benefit in a tiny handful of games and at the very highest settings.

I'm in a similar position but will prolly wait for the next gen of cards, maybe there will be some more demanding games out by then.

That's the sensible side of me talking, the other half of me is screaming do it do it!!

 

Then I'd go tri-SLI GTX 680, the benefit from quad-SLI is supposed to be negligible.

 

For the power drop alone I'd consider it ~300w drop in consumption under load whilst being faster is pretty special, thing is as it won't be much faster it might not feel like an upgrade in most areas leaving you a bit underwhelmed.

It's a lot of money to blow to come away underwhelmed, the £400 quid bump would likely cover any power draw differences whilst you hold on for the next gen??

 

I wouldn't bother seeing as you'd actually be getting slower performance. Yeah more VRAM and yeah it's cooler. But you'd lose out on performance overall.

EDIT: Weird I swore that I saw 580 SLI for one GTX 680. Consider my opinion null and invalid. Get a GTX 690 if you really want to, but I honestly wouldn't bother.

 

Its quicker, it uses less power but there are areas where it is slower...

They clock well, not as good as the 680s but if I were you i would wait and see what 2x 670s can bring to the table

 

Ek are saying 4 Weeks for a gtx 690 waterblock.

Wouldn't 2x 670s still be vram limited?

 

I would look to 680s rather than a 690, probably slightly more powerful out of the box, and being more versatile in my opinion, wquad sli has never been any good, triple sli has been the limit in my opinion, and even then drivers have had such a big impact on performance, far more than normal sli it's still a little risky

 

I wouldn't go for the GTX690 for 1600p or above, as it only has 2x2GB VRAM. Instead I'd go for 2 x GTX680 4GB such as this Palit or this Gainward. And you can always go for a third if you find they still struggle.

 

I love the massive dual GPU cards, they look amazing under water and a 690 is going to beat 2x580's all day..

 

^This, because 2GB is not enough! Once you start adding HD texture packs, and other graphical mods, you will start to see VRAM usage upto 3GB.

Also 1.5GB GTX 580's was enough 2yrs ago. Now 2 yrs on, you can see all the latest top titles utilising 2GB VRAM now. 2GB GTX 680's are not very future proof!

 

Agreed.

Paying £800+ for a card with 2GB vRAM is a massive mistake IMHO.