Performance
Unigine Heaven Demo
The GeForce GTX 690 sets new performance records in the semi-synthetic 3DMarks and Unigine Heaven, outpacing the pair of slightly overclocked Radeon HD 7970s.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
The new card is good in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat although the CrossFireX tandem of two Radeon HD 7970s is somewhat faster in the heaviest graphics mode.
Left 4 Dead 2
Such top-end graphics solutions can only be compared in Left 4 Dead 2 at 2560×1600 with 8x MSAA turned on. The Radeon HD 7970s are ahead, but the game runs smoothly even on the single GeForce GTX 680.
Metro 2033: The Last Refuge
The GeForce GTX 690 is over 80% faster than the GeForce GTX 680 in this resource-consuming game. Nvidia’s dual-GPU flagship is as fast as the two overclocked Radeon HD 7970s.
Just Cause 2
Just Cause 2 isn’t a heavy application, yet it allows us to compare the new card with the GeForce GTX 680 and AMD solutions. The GeForce GFTX 690 comes out the winner, beating the GeForce GTX 680 by about 80%.
Aliens vs. Predator (2010)
Aliens vs. Predator (2010) is one of the three games on our list where the CrossFireX tandem of Radeon HD 7970s cards overclocked to 1000/5800 MHz beats the default GeForce GTX 690. The latter is fast anyway, enjoying a 90% advantage over the GeForce GTX 680.
Lost Planet 2
The GeForce GTX 690 is equal to the CrossFireX tandem of Radeon HD 7970s in Lost Planet 2 and is even 6 fps ahead in average frame rate in the heaviest graphics mode.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Everything’s clear in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. When not limited by the platform, the GeForce GTX 690 is superior whereas AMD’s solutions have problems with antialiasing in this game.
Sid Meier’s Civilization V
The Radeons look pretty confident in Sid Meier’s Civilization V, though:
The GeForce GTX 690 is 85% ahead of the GeForce GTX 680.
Total War: Shogun 2
It is in Total War: Shogun 2 that the Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX configuration scores its third win over the GeForce GTX 690 which in its turn is much faster than the GeForce GTX 680.
Crysis 2
The Radeon HD 7970 CrossFire can only compete with the GeForce GTX 690 in Crysis 2 until we turn antialiasing on. When antialiasing is enabled, CrossFireX turns off, so the CrossFireX tandem becomes no faster than the single Radeon HD 7970. Meanwhile, the GeForce GTX 690 beats the GeForce GTX 680 by 85% and more!
The GeForce GTX 690 wins DiRT 3.
Hard Reset Demo
The CPU-dependent Hard Reset can only help us compare the cards when antialiasing is turned on. The GeForce GTX 690 wins then.
The GeForce GTX 690 is unrivalled in Batman: Arkham City, too.
Battlefield 3
The CrossFireX tandem has some problems in Battlefield 3, so Nvidia’s new card meets no competition:
In conclusion here is the table with detailed test results for your reference:
Performance Summary
First, let’s measure the difference between the GeForce GTX 680 and the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690 at their default clock rates.
We can see the same trend throughout all the tests: the gap between the two cards grows larger at higher graphics loads. The yellow columns are almost always higher than the violet ones, which means that the GeForce GTX 690 shows its best when you enable antialiasing and highest resolutions. The average advantage of the GeForce GTX 680 over its junior cousin amounts to 54-72% at 1920×1080 and to 62-78% at 2560×1600. But if we take the most resource-consuming applications, the gap will be 90-95%!
The next pair of summary diagrams compare the default GeForce GTX 690 with the CrossFireX tandem of Radeon HD 7970s clocked at 1000/5800 MHz.
We’ve got two multi-GPU technologies competing here. We’ll discuss the efficiency of CrossFireX in more detail in our upcoming report, but we can note here that the GeForce GTX 690 easily wins where CrossFireX doesn’t work or works inefficiently (and there are quite a lot of such applications on our list including Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 at the high-quality settings and Batman: Arkham City). The slightly overclocked CrossFireX tandem is ahead in three games: Aliens vs. Predator (2010), Sid Meier’s Civilization V and Total War: Shogun 2 (the GeForce series has got slower in the latter game with the recent drivers). In the rest of the games and tests the two solutions deliver similar performance. If we calculate the average across all the tests (which is not quite a correct way of comparison, we must admit), the default GeForce GTX 690 is ahead of the two Radeon HD 7970s overclocked to 1000/5800 MHz by 5-12% at 1920×1080 and by 1-15% at 2560×1600.
The AMD Radeon HD 79xx series features high overclocking potential and a linear correlation between performance and clock rates. Today we’ve overclocked our GeForce GTX 690 from 915/6008 to 1085/7588 MHz (+18.6/26.3% without frequency boost), so let’s see what performance benefits this overclocking provides.
Comparing the results at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600, we can see a higher performance growth at the higher resolution. The overclocked GeForce GTX 690 is faster by 8-12% at 1920×1080 and by 11-15% at 2560×1600. The heavier the test, the bigger the performance growth is. The Radeon HD 79xx series has a stronger correlation between performance and frequency at overclocking, but the GeForce GTX 690 is a multi-GPU solution as opposed to the single-GPU Radeon HD 7970.
Conclusion
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 2×2 GB is the world’s fastest graphics accelerator being as much as 95% faster than the today’s flagship single-GPU Nvidia product – GeForce GTX 680 2 GB. The new Nvidia creation boasts mind-blowing performance, which is so incredibly high that it simply makes no sense to invest in this card unless your monitor supports resolutions above 1920×1080. And in 2560×1600 resolution, which is currently the highest resolution possible (on single-monitor configurations), GeForce GTX 690 will deliver comfortable gaming experience in any contemporary game even with enable antialiasing. And this performance won’t be excessive in such games as Metro 2033: The Last Refuge or Total War: Shogun 2.
I would like to specifically stress superb energy-efficiency of the new GeForce GTX 690. As we have just seen, a system equipped with one dual-GPU Nvidia graphics accelerator consumes about 112 W less under peak operational load than a system with a pair of slightly overclocked AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards. I doubt that the owners of graphics cards like that ever pay attention to their power bills, but Nvidia’s advantage here is beyond obvious. Moderate level of generated noise will also be a pleasant bonus for the owners of these graphics cards. Of course, we were truly impressed with the unique packaging and an enclosed prybar: Nvidia’s out-of-the-box PR move has definitely been extremely successful. Keep up such creativity, guys!
Now we are looking forward to the dual-GPU response from AMD. And from now on the ultimate dream-machine of every dedicated and wealthy gamer out there will look something like that.
