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Upgrading card in January

Jackaby

Jackaby

Jackaby

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2010
Posts
339
Location
Brighton, England.
This is probably the last major upgrade I can make before I move out in april, and then get married in June, so I'm going to go all out.

Was basically only really considering a 690, especially if I can get it without the VAT from a friend.

My current system is:

Gigabyte GTX 580 3GB
8GB 1600MHZ Corsair vengeance RAM
i7 2600k - Currently at stock
Asrock extreme 4 Gen 4 Mobo
+ 128Gig SSD as primary drive and a 1TB WD as a storage drive.

I'm currently only running 1920x1080 on a single monitor, but after the upgrade I hope to be running on 3, however no less than 2 monitors. Is the 690 alone enough of an upgrade? Will I perhaps get bottlenecks from any other hardware I have?

Basically any suggestions would be greatly welcome :)
 
I suppose AMD is an option, however after my previous X-Fire performance in my previous system I would rather stick to a single card, and I am more of a fan of Nvidia.
 
You realise the 690 is actually 2 680's? (I know everybody knows this, but I mean how they work and show up with drivers etc).

And as such it shows up as being 2 of them in SLi right?

Unfortunately that won't fix going multi-card!
 
I knew it was counted as 2 cards, but not that it was counted as SLI as it's only plugged into one PCI.
 
Don't use a GTX 690 over 2 or 3 monitors or you could get let down by lack of vram.

Up to 2560 x 1600 their fine but you can get better value from a pair of HD 7950s.
 
The 8xxx series cards can't be too far off coming in next few months, so wait for them or pick up a bargain with the older cards when new ones arrive.

I'm also desperate to replace a 4870, but am holding out to the new year
 
I think people are looking too much into the new graphs that have just come out for AMD. let's not forget that graphics cards depreciate very quickly and would be mega expensive when it first comes out not to mention the driver problems you can get with a brand new card

imo youd be better off waiting for prices to drop and drivers to matutre. before buying a new gen card
 
Gtiracer said:
I think people are looking too much into the new graphs that have just come out for AMD. let's not forget that graphics cards depreciate very quickly and would be mega expensive when it first comes out not to mention the driver problems you can get with a brand new card

imo youd be better off waiting for prices to drop and drivers to matutre. before buying a new gen card
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Exactly why I bought my 7950 3 weeks ago after seeing the results of the 12.11 drivers. £236 for one of the fastest single cards available. :D
 
She's actually pretty cool with it, as long as I do it before then xD

Despite what is being said I am still highly tempted by a 690.

EDIT: Also now looking into 680's...
 
Last edited:
Jackaby said:
She's actually pretty cool with it, as long as I do it before then xD

Despite what is being said I am still highly tempted by a 690.

EDIT: Also now looking into 680's...
Click to expand...

Two 680s. Looks cooler, faster by default, way cheaper. You could even look at two 670s - even cheaper, overclocked they'll match/possibly beat the 680s + match/beat the 690!

Then you have extra pennies to spend on other components :D
 
The 690 is a sleek bit of kit. Unfortunately you pay for the aesthetics through the nose. Two 670s are the sweet spot as they're only 5% slower than a 680. I posted this for somebody else taking a similar choice:

Rusty0611 said:
I'll give you some context on the difference between a 670 and a 680 as I wouldn't want you to waste your money without truly appreciating what you're getting for the extra cash.

A 670 is effectively a slightly cut down 680 which performs within 5% of a 680. They're so close that it's completely feasible that you could have a poor clocking 680 which is slower than a good clocking 670. For £60-100 more this is quite an important point.

If you consider in a theoretical example that the two cards clocked identically and they were 5% apart then that 5% equates to the following:

680 - 80 FPS
670 - 76 FPS

680 - 60 FPS
670 - 57 FPS

680 - 110 FPS
670 - 105.5 FPS

680 - 40 FPS
670 - 38 FPS

And so on.

The difference between the two cards is never going to be the difference between playable and unplayable so you would be much better saving the money and putting it towards a second 670 when the time comes or banking it towards a future upgrade.
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