The GTX 690 Arrives – Exotic Industrial Design takes the Performance Crown!

Conclusion

This has been quite an enjoyable, if far too short, 3-day exploration for us in evaluating our new GTX 690 since it arrived on Monday (this week). It did extraordinarily well performance-wise comparing it to the the GTX 590 where it brings higher performance than any other video card in the world to date. We are totally impressed with the pair of cool-running Kepler chip that has such outstanding overclockability. It slots way above the HD 6990 and GTX 590 and it leaves the GTX 680 and HD 7970 in the dust.

It also looks awesome inside just about any case. Here it is crammed into a Cooler Master Elite 430 mid-tower.  We plan to move our system shortly in to a full-tower Thermaltake Overseer RX-I case.  Nvidia indicated that the LED logo is programmable and that their partners may have their own light sequence available for end users.

We see good overclockability with extreme quietness at stock voltage and fan profile even when the GTX 690 is highly overclocked. The only issue might be price and we expect that it gives about 95% of the performance of true GTX 680 SLI at $500 each in one strikingly presented package.  $999 is expensive yet we are quite certain that it will appeal to the gamer who demands the very best – without any compromises.

Pros

• The GTX 690 is the most powerful video card in the world!
• TDP and power draw is excellent. Performance per watt is better than its competitor’s last generation flagship 40nm HD 6990 (to say nothing about even matching recent single-GPU solutions) and it is nearly dead silent in comparison to any other dual-GPU card.
• Overclockability is excellent – GPU Boost works as advertised.
• The reference design cooling is quiet and efficient; the card and well-ventilated case stay cool even well-overclocked.
• It is possible to use two of these cards for extreme Quad-SLI performance without needing a massive PSU
• 3D Vision 2 and PhysX enhance gaming immersion and both are improved using the GTX 690 compared to the last generation.
• Surround and 3D Vision Surround plus an accessory display can now be driven off of a single GTX 690 without requiring any adapters;
• New AA allows for high performance without jaggies in deferred shading lighting engines
• Adaptive VSynch reduces stuttering while retaining the advantages of minimizing tearing.
• The GTX 690 is the fastest video card – period!  And if looks are counted, it is very impressive as an “Exotic Industrial Design”

Cons

• The price.  The first thousand dollar production video card takes your breath away – at first.  Yet it compares favoribly in every way to GTX 680 SLI which is priced the same.
• No Tri-SLI available to pair a GTX 690 with a GTX 680.

The Verdict:

• If you are buying a flagship video card right now and looking for the highest performance, the GTX 690 is the only choice. We feel it deserves ABT’s highest award – the “Kick Ass” award because it is completely unique in design and performance.  We feel that it also deserves ABT’s “Innovation” because it is the first designer card that incorporates important features to cater to the very highest end gamer without compromise.

We do not know what the future will bring, but the GTX 690 brings an excellent top-performer to the GeForce family. With great features like PhysX and the second generation of 3D Vision, you can be assured of immersive gaming by picking this card for 2560×1600 or even higher resolutions including for Surround and/or for 3D Vision Surround.

If you currently game on an older generation video card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a GTX 690 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of Quad-SLI if you want to get the ultimate in gaming performance. We expect that many enthusiasts will – like us – upgrade to Intel’s Ivy Bridge – and this is the perfect video card to compliment their fastest processors.

The competition is hot and AMD offers their own set of features including Eyefinity and HD3D but they simply cannot touch the raw power of the GTX 690.  However, we expect that they will introduce their own flagship dual-GPU card, the HD 7990 and we look forward to it.

Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT. Next up is an evaluation of the flagship Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler which has allowed us to increase our Core i7-3770K to 4.6GHz just for this review – and we find we can even clock it higher to 4.8GHz. And you can expect more great reviews from our Mobile Tech guys to put into our new section; expect a Genius product review also this week! And don’t forget to check our forums! Our tech discussions are becoming among the best to be found anywhere!!

Mark Poppin

ABT Senior Editor

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