• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

6XX 4GB or is it 2GB Ram?

garsands

garsands

garsands

Associate
Joined
29 Nov 2009
Posts
1,760
Is the 4GB of memory on the cards below ture 4GB or are they like the GTX590 4GB where its 2GB per GPU?
Thanks.

Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

EVGA GeForce GTX 690 4096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 Graphics Card
 
The GTX 680 4GB is a true 4GB card - as there is just one GPU and it has full access to the 4GB of VRAM.

However, the GTX 690 is a dual-GPU card (like the GTX 590) made up of two GK104 cores (the same one used in the GTX 680, just clocked a bit lower) so each GPU can only address a maximum of 2GB VRAM. Therefore, even though there is a total of 4GB of VRAM installed on the card, each GPUs effectively only sees 2GB of it.
 
Thanks for the help.

I need a new PSU for my cards the one I have is 40AMP but I need 42AMP min, underload the cards fail for a few secs & sometimes the screen stays black so have to reboot.

But as a new PSU is going to cost £+150 was looking at my options by getting new card(s) & keeping the PSU I have as it's a good one & most cards need only 38AMPS.
 
What PSU/GPU do you have at the moment? The 680 is the best single GPU card out there and uses less power compared to the 580.
 
PSU is a Corsair HX1000W
GPU 2 x EVGA Classified 580 GTX 3GB
The cards are OC at 930 2200
I am not worried about running cost but of course less power could mean no need to change the PSU.

I game on one screen at 2560 x 1440 no space to add extra screens so will be keeping just the one.

Need at lest 3GB of Ram as I have hit 2.90GB of Ram usage before playing Metro.

I was even thinking of getting a 3rd Classified.
 
The GTX 680 uses considerably less power than a GTX 580 (see here) so if your heavily overclocked GTX 580s are running at the limit of your 1000W PSU then you shouldn't have much problem replacing them with GTX 680s.

I would certainly recommend the GTX 680 4GB route over a third GTX 580 - mainly because you won't need a new PSU and living with two GTX 680s will be a lot more bearable than with three GTX 580s.
 
cmndr_andi said:
The GTX 680 uses considerably less power than a GTX 580 (see here) so if your heavily overclocked GTX 580s are running at the limit of your 1000W PSU then you shouldn't have much problem replacing them with GTX 680s.

I would certainly recommend the GTX 680 4GB route over a third GTX 580 - mainly because you won't need a new PSU and living with two GTX 680s will be a lot more bearable than with three GTX 580s.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this bit, a 2gb version will suffice quite easily :) (99% of cases)
 
It's a pain as the cards perform well at that rez giving good FPS.
I just fell foul when it came to the AMPS & was just looking at the Watts of my PSU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom