Upgrade from GTX 690 SLI on ~8 year old PC for widescreen gaming

[Durzel]

Hi,

I recently dug my computer out of storage, after it had been packed away for the past 6 years. It has a Intel i7-3930k on an ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME motherboard, with 2 x EVGA GTX 690 in SLI. Not sure what the memory is but I assume it's among the best that was available at the time (circa 2013).

Back in the day this was a pretty formidable combo, but I don't think it's going to be up to much anymore.

I'm not going to be hardcore gaming again any time soon, but at the same time I'd like to be able to run stuff comfortably on a new 38" 3840x1600 Ultrawide monitor I've bought (for work, but will use it for games too).

What is likely to be the simplest and most bang for buck upgrade to this PC to be able to run things comfortably at 60FPS+ sustained? I'm not really interested in completely rebuilding it, as I've managed without it for 6 years and quite honestly I don't have the mana anymore, but I would be amenable to replacing the graphics cards for a more current single or SLI card(s). Interested to hear thoughts?

(I wish I'd pulled these GTX 690s out of the PC back in 2014, when they might have been worth something.. just scoured my emails and saw that I paid £900 each for them back in 2012. I imagine they're not worth a packet of cornflakes anymore)

Thanks in advance

 

[subbytna]

I recently upgraded from a 3930k and it was a belter of a cpu, still is holding its own too. GPU is your best bet for the upgrade, probably a 2080super for the resolution and FPS you want. Make sure the CPU is clocked to 4.4 or higher too. My 3930k could hit 4.7.

New GPU's due later this year if you wait (3 months or so). Perhaps get a stop gap graphics card to let you game at medium settings, while you wait for new GPUs?

 

[Tetras]

The 690 is still pretty darn powerful, if SLI actually worked properly in a game, you might find it's enough, but without SLI it will struggle at that resolution in anything less than a few years old.

Unfortunately you're looking at big bucks to handle that resolution at 60 fps. Cheapest fix to not doing an overhaul is a 1080p monitor.

 

[Durzel]

Thanks both.

The monitor is going to be used mainly for productivity stuff, but I thought I could probably play Eve Online on it too, then I started looking at my games catalogue and got a bit carried away with "what ifs"... Always the way.

PC had lost of all of its CMOS settings when powered on, so it's all default at the moment. Wouldn't even boot into Windows (8.1) without bluescreening every time. Had to go into Safe Mode, then reboot, and now it seems ok. I suppose there is a good chance the CMOS battery is dead too.

I'm not 100% on what the CPU or GPUs were capable of before overclocking wise, I'd have to try and dig through any old benchmarks I might've done. I vaguely recall running the CPU at 4.2Ghz, but I'm not sure. Guess I have to learn how to do all of that from scratch.

I'm really not aiming to get back into having a PC running on the raggedy edge clock-wise.. if I do anything I would be far more inclined to go something low effort for max gains.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Hold out for the 3000 series cards which are due in a couple of months. Buy the best one your budget will allow, and slot it in there. Easiest upgrade ever.

If you don't feel you're getting the performance you want, then you'll have 14 days to get a full refund.

 

[Durzel]

Ok.

Won’t the 3000 series be even more expensive than the 2080 though?

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Ok.

Won’t the 3000 series be even more expensive than the 2080 though?

Sure, but a 3060/70 will outperform a 2080 for less money. It's a generational increment.

 

[Durzel]

Fair enough. Looks like it would be prudent to hold fire then. Thanks

 

[Kaapstad]

Forget gaming on the 690s at any resolution, they only have 2gb of memory per GPU which is no where near any good these days.

I still have a couple of 690s myself which are sat in a draw.

 

[Armageus]

I imagine they're not worth a packet of cornflakes anymore)

Oddly they're possibly worth more than you expect (maybe £100 each), if only because of their relative rarity

 

[Durzel]

Thanks.

They've barely been used, that's the crazy thing - certainly less than 6-12 months, though I have no practical way of proving that.

EDIT: It looks like I paid for the 10 year warranty back in 2012 too, so I guess they're still under warranty.

 

[McGraw]

Thanks.

They've barely been used, that's the crazy thing - certainly less than 6-12 months, though I have no practical way of proving that.

EDIT: It looks like I paid for the 10 year warranty back in 2012 too, so I guess they're still under warranty.

That’s some next level bad value you’ve had!

 

[Durzel]

Yup, a lot of depreciation with little benefit.

Unfortunately what precipitated my PC going into storage was a bad, life changing event, so it wasn’t really where my head was at for a long time.

 

[justwondering]

Thanks.

They've barely been used, that's the crazy thing - certainly less than 6-12 months, though I have no practical way of proving that.

EDIT: It looks like I paid for the 10 year warranty back in 2012 too, so I guess they're still under warranty.

Pray for them to go faulty.... As they would replace with a new card from the current range.

 

[One Vision]

You could vault mod them to help render them faulty as you can see from this old thread here.
https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/690-gtx-club-overclocking-benchmarks.362667/

Keplar was the last gpu architecture that you could do a proper vault mod on with no restrictions.