690's are they worth it?

Bennehmaru · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:28

Hi All,

I recently bought a new PC and this month will be buying the graphics card. I ahve around £1000 to spend on graphics card/cards.

My housemate keeps recommending the 690 (I was going to go for 2z670's)

Whats everyones suggestions on this?

[TW]Fox · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:32

This is going to be an entirely subjective thread really - like all high end products its never really 'worth it'. £1000 on a video card is hilarious, at the end of the day if you are the sort of person who would buy one you'll buy one irrespective of what everyone thinks anyway.

Meaker · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:34

Just make sure you have budgeted in the space for 3 monitors or a super high res display to justify having that much horse power.

Reality|Bites · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:38

This is just to play games right?

bemaniac · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:45

I guess if you have a case where you are limited to one card and are working on a project where you want ultimate graphics power in a small form factor you would look to the 690 because of the power packed into just 2 slots. I think a small media centre chassis with one of these would be my dream pc to be honest I love the idea of having such power in a tiny box.

HankScorpio · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:47

I'd say get x3 7950s and put them underwater for 1k. Much better spend of money compared to a single 690

chipachap · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:55

HankScorpio said:
I'd say get x3 7950s and put them underwater for 1k. Much better spend of money compared to a single 690

This. Or 7970's can be had for the price of 670's and offer more performance, what CPU do you use? I.E can your mobo run 3 cards at x8?

Bennehmaru · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:01

To answer a few questions, yes it's for gaming.

And yes I have a motherboard that can support 3 cards at 8x

running on i7 ivy

Kaapstad · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:02

Either 2 x MSI GTX 680s or a pair of HD 7970s.

Are GTX 690s worth it ?
It depends on your needs there are pros and cons but personally I would say yes.

whyscotty · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:13

Only you can answer that.

Value for money, some would say not.

I will say this, I've not heard many owners complain about them.

Personally I prefer two seperate cards as if one goes down you still
have a card to use.

I would however say your choice of two 670 is the one I'd go for.

bemaniac · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:16

I'd not go for 3 of anything because there is only a few games that use the 3rd card properly. If money wasn't an object for me I would choose the gtx690 over everything else but then again it's October and I've had 11 months fun out of my 7970 and wouldn't buy any of the top end cards now so close to the new years 8800 releases, trade up yearly is the best way to go - I'd say keep your slower card til Jan-Feb and then get the next releases.

F1aw1ess · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:19

2 x 7970's and a loop is how id spend that kind of money.

Actually id go 2 x 670's but thats just because of a bad experience with AMD back in the 5 series days, most here will say the 7970's are overall better card when you take price/overclocked performance into account

bemaniac · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:22

I'd swap my 7970 for a 680gtx just to get a sample of life on the other side so I could really weigh in on the discussions going on but it works for me right now but I will admit to it not waking up still after the monitor goes to off.

F1aw1ess · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:27

bemaniac said:
I will admit to it not waking up still after the monitor goes to off.

little niggles like that, that made me send back a 5870 and then similar issues with a 5970. Always been plug and go with NVidia, I'll never go back to ATI/AMD again.

Bennehmaru · 24 Sep 2012 at 21:56

So would I be better for the moment getting maybe just one 670 and the upgrading to whatever comes out in the next generation?

Basically just need a card that will carry me through for a year or 2 playing everything maxxed out

HankScorpio · 24 Sep 2012 at 22:47

670 Won't play everything maxxed out but will play most things at high settings with good fps on a single monitor.

Though they're 300-350

7950s are more or less the same and can be had for £220

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-177-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Add an extra £50 and stick this on it http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-062-AR

And it'll be very quiet and allow for great overclocking.

Add another 7950 or 7970 later down the line and putof those coolers on them is my advice. Nvidia counterparts are NOT WORTH an extra £100

Defy Belief · 24 Sep 2012 at 22:52

HankScorpio said:
670 Won't play everything maxxed out but will play most things at high settings with good fps on a single monitor.

Though they're 300-350

7950s are more or less the same and can be had for £220

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-177-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Add an extra £50 and stick this on it http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-062-AR

And it'll be very quiet and allow for great overclocking.

Add another 7950 or 7970 later down the line and putof those coolers on them is my advice. Nvidia counterparts are NOT WORTH an extra £100

What couldn't a 670 play at max settings? Looking at every review states it quite clearly can. (And depending what the OP may play, an Nvidia card may better suit his needs)

Sliver · 24 Sep 2012 at 22:58

Defy Belief said:
What couldn't a 670 play at max settings? Looking at every review states it quite clearly can. (And depending what the OP may play, an Nvidia card may better suit his needs)

+1

670 will play anything today at max. Hell, my 580 maxes every game I have lol. :cool:

KompuKare · 24 Sep 2012 at 23:15

whyscotty said:
Only you can answer that.

Value for money, some would say not.

I will say this, I've not heard many owners complain about them.

Personally I prefer two seperate cards as if one goes down you still
have a card to use.

I would however say your choice of two 670 is the one I'd go for.

+1. Obviously £900 worth of card is a very subjective 'worth it' but for those who have that kind of money to spend, I would recommend getting two 670s unless your case is very small or you want a save a bit of power.

But two cards give you more options. Should one fail, you still have the other, should you want to sell them eventually I don't think the price will be that difference anyhow and with two cards you can always sell one and keep the other for another system etc. Just far more versatile - the only thing you would miss the ability to go dual 690 but quad SLI has all kinds of extra problems anyhow.

Kaapstad · 25 Sep 2012 at 00:31

Quad SLI works for me ok the only time I get problems is when I do something silly like running a benchmark at a silly resolution (640 x 480).

For games it works fine and even if you find a game that does not use all 4 GPUs it will use a least 2 of them.

For multi monitor setups your better off with individual GPUs (better ocing)

For a single hi rez monitor a GTX 690 is pretty good.

As said above there are 2 card setups which give the same performance for less money.