My GTX 690 is on the way to my PC. Can someone that has one give me any tips on what to expect? Like game compatibility, sli, overclocking, ect.
I heard that some games won't utilize the 2nd graphic processor.
My GTX 690 is on the way to my PC. Can someone that has one give me any tips on what to expect? Like game compatibility, sli, overclocking, ect.
I heard that some games won't utilize the 2nd graphic processor.
Overkill on everything.
What to expect: Ultra Graphic settings. (Some games may be badly optimized however.)
Game Compatibility: Hmm, I haven't heard of a current game that wouldn't work on it.
Tips: Keep it clean of dust atleast once/twice a month. Update graphics drivers when you can (if you want to.)
Last edited by Libram; 2012-12-19 at 02:13 AM.
Friend of mine got one and everything runs really smooth.
But you wont get 100+fps on every game with ultra high graphics and everything turned on.
I played 1.6 myself and always felt the need to have a constant 100 fps, but its really not that important outside of cs and once you turned the display for fps off you will be better off anyways.
I do have a 680 and I only notice frame drops when they go below 35~
The human eye processes about 20 frames per second but it can process up to 60 for others(and is not all the time, just in panic mostly) or some other cases. Why on hell would being at 90fps on a video game would bother you?
Sure there is a difference, but where do you stop? Where would you put the line? Is 500 fps enough? It is really hard to notice in 90+% of the games, especially non shooter games.
I do have a 120 Hz BenQ monitor and can run most games at a good frame rate but still set the frame rate limit to 60 fps in most games. E.g. the new Hitman game. You dont notice a difference if it runs at 60 constant or 120 constant fps. If it drops under 40 fps and starts to stutter you notice.
just read this
http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frame...humans_see.htm
Last edited by fizzbob; 2012-12-19 at 02:32 AM.
I have 2 GTX 680 lightnings in SLI, which has slightly better performance than a 690.
In most games, you'll be pegged at an average of 120fps +. But you will NOT have a minimum of 100fps or even remotely close to that unless you're playing a terribly old game. SLI issues should be generally ironed out by the latest drivers by now (I havent had any issues). Overclocking voltage regulated 680's or a 690 won't get you very far as you'll hit the ceiling pretty quick.
All in all, it's still massive overkill for the majority of games, but don't expect a minimum fps rate of 100 fps.
Here's my result with a 3770k @ 4.6GHz and my 680 lightnings in SLI at 1300 core in Unigine Heaven with maximum settings
Absolute great FPS for years to come. Grats on the purchase!
I'd move that bad boy onto a 1440 screen !
i7 3770k @ 4.3 GHz | Cool Master Evo Push/Pull | Asrock z77 Extreme 4 | GTX 680 4GB SLI | Samsung 840 Pro 128GB | WD Blue 1TB | CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB| Seasonic X850W | Thermaltake Element V Black Edition| CrossOver 27Q 2560x1440 S-IPS 27" Monitor | Razer DeathStalker |Naga MMO Champion |Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
I've got two GTX 690s in a Quad SLI configuration, accompanied by an i7-3820 at 4.5 GHz, 8 GB of DDR3 at ~2000 MHz, an X79 motherboard, and a LEPA 1600W PSU.
Compatibility: NVIDIA has been very good about providing SLI support on a lot of games on the market, but how well the GPUs scale and if multi-GPU rendering is even supported (or effective) is more to do with the game. Battlefield 3, for example, enjoys very high performance scaling with SLI because it was developed with multiple GPUs in mind in addition to the fact that there are a ton of visual details on screen which allow the presence of additional GPUs to be more noticeable. World of Warcraft does support SLI and performance gains can be seen with it, but games of this nature share a common problem with older games and those that aren't visually intensive: a lot of the time, the CPU usually ends up with more work to do than the GPUs, meaning performance gains with SLI may be marginal if they're observable at all. In that case, it won't matter how many GPUs you add into your system; your CPU is still going to be more determinant of performance. The point where this occurs depends on your system specs and the visual settings of the game, and so it varies from game to game and system to system. It's also important to keep in mind that a better frame rate doesn't necessarily always occur at the point of highest GPU scaling - running with 1x multisampling and getting 180 FPS but low SLI scaling is a better position to be in (for raw performance) compared to 4x multisampling and seeing high scaling but at 130 FPS.
Overclocking: The 690s handle themselves very well beyond stock frequencies, but what ends up being stable for yours isn't necessarily going to be the same for mine, for example. One of my 690s overclocks better than the other, and when running SLI, you always need to limit your OC to the lowest common denominator if you insist on forcing synchronized frequencies. (This isn't required, but some people complain of instability when running them asynchronously overclocked. Your mileage may vary.) That stuff aside, both of mine can comfortably run at 135/+100/+220 (power target/GPU offset/RAM offset.) I'd suggest running the Unigine Heaven demo benchmark at the highest settings five or six times to roughly ensure stability at a particular clock speed.
Temperatures: You'd do well to watch the GPU temperatures, especially if you're gonna be overclocking. Set up a fan curve profile through EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner to make sure you don't end up in a bad spot. Mine idle around 30C and reach their peak at around 82C, at which point the fans have long been howling at their fastest speeds.
My Heaven results: http://i.imgur.com/UQx9m.jpg
Lemme know if you have any specific questions.
Last edited by Collie; 2012-12-19 at 04:41 AM.