GEFORCE GTX 690 – “faster, higher, stronger!” – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

 

We present to you a review of the new flagship from NVIDIA in the form of the dual-chip GeForce GTX 690. The video card turned out to be surprisingly successful in all aspects – the card has the highest performance and at the same time has impressive low noise and temperature indicators.

First look at GEFORCE GTX 690

 After the recent launch of the GeForce GTX 680, NVIDIA is introducing a video card based on the Kepler architecture (you can read more about this architecture in the GeForce GTX 680 review) with two GK104 processors. NVIDIA already has experience in developing dual-chip solutions – GeForce GTX 295 and GTX 590, but due to limited power consumption, these models had very low operating frequencies, which greatly affected the performance results. The release of the GeForce GTX 690 can be called a huge step in the direction of dual-chip solutions, because… Thanks to the latest manufacturing technologies and the new Kepler architecture, the GeForce GTX 690 includes two full-fledged video chips.

Technical specifications

• Code name of the chips is GK104;
• 28nm production technology;
• 3.54 billion transistors in each chip;
• Core area 294 mm2 per chip;
• Unified architecture with an array of processors for stream processing of various types of data: vertices, pixels, etc.;
• Hardware support for DirectX 11 API, including Shader Model 5.0, geometry and compute shaders, as well as tessellation;
• Dual 256-bit memory bus: four independent controllers per chip, 64-bit wide each, with support for GDDR5 memory;
• Base core frequency 915 MHz
• Core frequency at Boost Clock 1019 MHz
• 2×8 streaming multiprocessors, including a total of 3072 scalar ALUs for floating point calculations (support for calculations in integer format, floating point, with FP32 and FP64 precision within the IEEE 754-2008 standard);
• 2×128 texture addressing and filtering units with support for FP16 and FP32 components in textures and support for trilinear and anisotropic filtering for all texture formats;
• 2×4 wide ROP units (all 64 pixels) with support for anti-aliasing modes up to 32 samples per pixel, including FP16 or FP32 frame buffer format. Each block consists of an array of configurable ALUs and is responsible for generating and comparing Z, MSAA, blending;
• Integrated support for RAMDAC, two Dual Link DVI ports, as well as HDMI and DisplayPort.
• Integrated support for four monitors, including two Dual Link DVI ports, as well as HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2
• PCI Express 3.0 bus support
• Number of universal processors 2×1536;
• Number of texture blocks – 2×128, blending blocks – 2×32;
• Effective memory frequency 6008 (1502×4) MHz;
• Memory type GDDR5, 2×256-bit memory bus;
• Memory capacity 2×2 GB;
• Memory bandwidth 2×192.3 GB/s;
• Theoretical maximum fill rate is 58.6 gigapixels per second;
• Theoretical texture sampling speed is 234.2 gigatexels per second;
• Three Dual Link DVI-I connectors, one DisplayPort;
• Single SLI connector;
• PCI Express 3.0 bus;
• Power consumption 300 W
• Two-slot design;

Like its predecessor GTX 680, the GTX 690 also supports the latest PCI-E 3 standard. NVIDIA positions the GTX 690 as the equivalent of a pair of two GTX 680s, this can be judged both by performance and by the price factor. The recommended retail price for the GTX 690 is $999, the cost of one video cards GTX 680 is $499.

Design

The design of the GTX 690 is as follows: the cooling system casing is entirely made of metal and magnesium alloy, the GPU heatsink is made of chromed aluminum. In terms of board dimensions, the GTX 690 is only one inch larger than the GTX 680 board at 11 inches. On the top end of the video cards casing there is a glow-in-the-dark GeForce logo with a soft-touch effect, applied using a laser.

 

The principle of the cooling system in the GTX 690 is almost the same as that of its younger brother, the GeForce GTX 590. The cooling of the two GPUs is carried out by two separate radiators with a copper vapor chamber. A large axial fan with a large-diameter impeller is installed in the center of the cooling system, accelerating the air to the sides. To increase cooling efficiency and reduce fan noise, the cooling system casing was redesigned – special low-profile channels were designed directly under the fan to direct air flow to the radiators.

 

NVIDIA engineers also improved the fan control logic; its rotation speed changes smoothly, rather than step by step.

There are 3 DVI ports and one DisplayPort on the back of the video cards.

Plateau

The GTX 690 graphics card uses a 10-layer board. All memory chips are installed on one side of the board.

Like the previous dual-chip model GeForce GTX 590, the GTX 690 is equipped with Samsung K4G20325FD-FC03 memory chips. The effective operating frequency of the memory is the same as that of the GTX 680 – 6 GHz. The video cards power system has five phases for each GPU. All capacitors on the GTX 690 board are solid state.

Overclocking

For overclocking settings we used MSI Afterburner. As you can see from the screenshot below, we managed to achieve overclocking to a frequency of +100 MHz for the core and up to +500 MHz for the memory.

 

At these frequencies we get a card with higher performance than two GeForce GTX 680, while maintaining comfortable temperature and noise characteristics corresponding to non-overclocked GeForce GTX 690. There is simply no point in overclocking any more – this performance will satisfy all existing needs.

 

19000 parrots on GPU – an incredible record at home has become a reality… 

 Testing GEFORCE GTX680 

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator.

Our video cards were tested at separate screen sizes of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by the games, and, of course, by the resources of the video cards. In this case, we took games that, at different quality settings, have the greatest impact on the performance drop of video cards. These include the most resource-intensive games of our time – Metro 2033 Total War: Shogun 2 and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, as well as the latest innovations in the gaming industry.

Radeon HD 7970 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked Radeon HD 7970 OC – core 1160 MHz and memory 7160 MHz

Radeon HD 6990 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked Radeon HD 6990 OC – core 880 MHz and memory 5500 MHz

GeForce GTX 590 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 590 OC – core 680 MHz and memory 3800 MHz

GeForce GTX 680 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 680OC – core 1150 MHz and memory 7000 MHz

GeForce GTX 690 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 690OC – core 1020 MHz and memory 7000 MHz

The test was carried out on one of the most powerful gaming configurations to date based on an Intel Core i7-3930K with overclocking to 4.8 GHz, eight gigabytes of DDR3 RAM with a frequency of 2133 MHz and an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD hard drive.

Metro 2033

Metro 2033 came out about two years ago and to this day is one of the most technologically advanced games, and, of course, one of the most demanding. This is the only game from 2010 that we took to test modern top-end video cards.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

 

The GeForce GTX 690 showed itself quite confidently with these settings, beating all modern gaming solutions.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600 GeForce GTX 690 turned out to be the only video card that could deal with Metro 2033 – it’s finally done!

Total War: Shogun 2

Total War: Shogun 2 is an excellent continuation of its Total War series that will appeal to many of its fans. Graphically, the game has become a leader in the abundance of graphical bells and whistles and special effects, representing a mixture of scale and beauty unprecedented in the world of strategy. The test was carried out with the maximum possible graphics settings in the game. Only the vertical sync function remained disabled. And just like in the 2011 video card test at a resolution of 2560×1600, video cards with a video memory capacity of at least two gigabytes were able to show themselves worthy.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

 

The GeForce GTX 690 performed quite mediocre in this case. Total War: Shogun 2 is not optimized for the Kepler architecture…

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600, overclocking helped get the coveted 25 FPS for GeForce GTX 690, making it a completely competitive solution in this case…

The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has become one of the most beautiful, technologically advanced and spectacular games of last year. At the moment, the game is one of the most resource-intensive games of the present time. The game settings for the test were turned up to the maximum.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

 

At a resolution of 1920×1080  GeForce GTX 690 is the undisputed leader, providing the highest FPS.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600 GeForce GTX 690 is the most optimal and comfortable solution for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

DiRT Showdown

DiRT Showdown is an arcade spin-off of the DiRT series. The developers have done their best and the game literally takes all the juice out of modern video accelerators. The game settings for the test were turned up to the maximum with MSSAA 4X.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 

 

В DiRT Showdown SLI is currently not working, which prevented GeForce GTX 690 to take the lead – we are waiting for a new driver revision…

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600, at the moment only AMD video cards perform well in the game.

Max Payne 3

In terms of graphics/performance ratio, Max Payne 3 is currently the best representative in the gaming industry.  The game settings for the test were turned up to the maximum.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 

 

At a resolution of 1920×1080, with maximum graphics quality settings, GeForce GTX 690 shows simply phenomenal performance, taking above 100 FPS.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

 

At a resolution of 2560×1600 GeForce GTX 690 has further strengthened its position…

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier boasts higher-quality graphics: improved models, textures and post-effects, DirectX 11 (including tessellation, volumetric fog and shader lighting), multi-monitor support and stereo 3D. The game settings for the test were turned up to the maximum.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

At a resolution of 1920×1080 all modern top-ends coped with the game without problems.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

At a resolution of 2560×1600 GeForce GTX 690 was again ahead of all existing solutions.

3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the most optimal solution for testing modern top-end video cards, since its performance is not limited by the central processor. The result was the result of GPU speed in modes extreme and performance.

Testing at quality settings 1280×720 Performance

 

Testing at quality settings 1920×1080 Extreme

 

Well, as usual, our final test is 3DMark 11. The GeForce GTX 690 showed performance that was almost 2 times higher than that of the other two chip solutions.

Based on the above review, we can say that GEFORCE GTX 690 is the fastest graphics solution on the market. The Achilles heel of these video cards may be poor optimization for SLI mode, as a result of which only one chip is fully functional – but this can be largely solved by the release of fresh drivers. And even if SLI does not work fully, we still have a video card with the performance of the top-end GEFORCE GTX 680, which cannot be said about the GeForce GTX 590, where, due to insufficient optimization, the performance is lower than the single-chip GeForce GTX 570.

 

Finally, at a resolution of 2560×1600, you can comfortably play Metro 2033 and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. So for owners of ultra-high resolution monitors, the GEFORCE GTX 690 is the only alternative option in terms of quality/performance – there are simply no other solutions on the market that provide sufficient FPS in super-heavy games. Well, for owners of Full HD monitors, this video card will be a clear overpayment, since at the moment the performance of single-chip top solutions is enough for them.

Let’s see what this video card will do in future games, but in the near future we expect a graphical review of one of the main games of next fall…