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| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 03 May 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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NVIDIA GPU BoostLike the CPU found inside computer systems, the GPU found in video cards almost never reaches 100% usage. In fact, the CPU and GPU rarely use more than 10% of their available power, yet consume energy regardless of how much is actually needed. NVIDIA has recognized this, and followed suite with CPU manufacturers to offer variable clock speeds and power consumption. NVIDIA GPU Boost technology enabled the GeForce GTX 680 video card to dynamically adjust power and clock speeds based on real-time application demands, automatically tweaking these settings several times per second. In some of the more demanding video games and applications there may occasionally be a time when the GPU is being fully utilized, which is when NVIDIA GPU Boost increases clock frequency to deliver improved graphics performance and higher image quality. NVIDIA GPU Boost is a combination of dedicated hardware circuitry that continually monitors GPU power consumption along with software technology that works in the background on GeForce GTX 690, and automatically adjusts the graphics clock speed based on application demands.
Using the EVGA PrecisionX tool (version 3.0.2 illustrated above with special GeForce GTX 690 skin), our test sample was able to remain stable with a 1215 MHz peak overclock (1158 MHz Boost) to the NVIDIA GPU Boost threshold, with the GeForce GTX 690s 4GB GDDR5 video frame buffer memory set to operate at 1601 MHz. Both settings used a maximum increase of target power (135%), and all tests were run with 95% fan speed. AMD and NVIDIA already stretch their GPUs pretty thin in terms of overclocking head room, but there's a difference between thin and non-existent. In this section, Benchmark Reviews compares stock versus overclocked video card performance on the GeForce GTX 590 with default voltage supplied to the GPUs. Here are the test results: GPU Overclocking Results
*Please note that the actual NVIDIA GPU Boost clock speed will vary, depending on system conditions and application demands. Typical GPU Boost speed shown. Overclocking Summary: With a 138 MHz overclock that represents a 15.1% increase in typical GPU speed, our baseline results indicate an average increase of about 11.8% in actual frame rate performance at 1920x1200 resolution. This usually amounted to an additional 10+ FPS in most scenes. This is a decent performance boost, especially considering we're working with a dual-GPU graphics card, and every extra frame translates into an advantage over your enemy.
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Comments
GTX 680s in SLI completely destroy a single 690.
saves you space on you motherboard.
price of 2x gtx 680 is same as 1x gtx 690.
gtx 680 2x power consumption.
SLi/crossfire, 2x gpu setup delays because they need to communicate between each other first before making computations
everyone knows that SLi or crossfiring 2 gpu doesnt give you 2 times performance. some games doesnt fully support SLi usually you have to wait for game updates. You also need to wait gpu driver updates to make sli/crossfire work efficiently on new games especially on new release gpu cards
which by the way an sli of gtx680 needs to be plugged in two pcie which in many cases causes bottleneck because some mobo has diffrent pcie gen2, gen3 and sometimes even if on 2x pcie gen3 sli some mobo will run it as gen2 which is the bottle.. tooo much hassle..
a single gtx690 = on a single pcie running at gen3
I'll buy a 690, and in less than a year I'll buy one to SLI for half the price. They've already stated that it'll clock over 1,100 on stock cooling, so as far as you being "really sure", i'm not sure what you're smoking.
I had the 7950 gx2 back in the day and it ran as well as the 8800, and it was cheaper, minus dx10. A couple months later I bought another for half the price because i HAD ROOM. It lasted another 3-4 years, and still kicked ass.
If you're going to buy anything and they're the same price, why would you buy 2 that have less performance, instead of one at the same price using the same chips and more room to expand?
I'm not sure of your reasoning on this, it makes no sense.
And don't correct me on price, that is the price for two, actually useful 680's.
I´ve read an article about GeForce GTX 680 3-way SLI an that didnt impress me much... i think an 690 or an 2-way SLI of 680 is a gamers dream for the next time. Maybe NVIDIA has some driver work to do for more power with more cards, dunno....
But hey maybe they will benchmark an GTX 690 Quad SLI Pack here.... that would be more than great....
Would the cpu hold the GTX690 or the GTX680 back too much to be worth the investment, or will a GTX680 or GTX690 be able to deliver nevertheless?
You have somewhat put my worries to rest.
I have been thinking of upgrading since GTA V was announced. My GTX 295 can handle all current demanding games with surprising ease, but it is at its limits when I want to push the GTA IV graphics. I hope the GTA V engine is better optimized for PC.
I will try to hold back my eagerness to buy a new video card until I feel it is really necessary.
And I didn't see the power usage idle/load on power chart.
This isn't a motherboard review, so there's no point in testing PCI-E 2 vs 3. If someone has $1000 to burn on a video card, they're not using it on old hardware.
Seriously, good stuff, but did I miss the usual scoring in the conclusion section or is it just not present?
Sure, if you're running a multiple monitor setup, higher FPS is what you want, but STILL, dual 680s in SLI is way better than a single 690.
Also, I disagree that SLI 680s is better than one GTX 690. It's your money, so buy what you want, but there's no 'right' answer.
Do you know what the "p" in terms like "720p" actually stands for?
So I am afraid to buy Radeon now.
I have tried a few generations of Nvidia cards and all my driver problems have gone away.
So you can see why I would be hard pressed to ever go back to the video cards that gave me so much trouble.
I am not saying I will never ever try an AMD card again, But at the moment I decline.