So I just built my first new PC about 2 weeks ago after 5 yrs. So far I'm loving it and have been seriously considering the ROG SWIFT PG278Q monitor to make my jump to UHD. The GTX 690 has been holding up well so far and playing games at max settings @ 1080p hasn't been an issue. But with the 800 series coming this fall/winter I think I would prefer to go to a single GPU. I've been considering the Titan Black or GTX 880. Obviously I have no idea how the GTX 880 will benchmark but I assume it will be a decent boost over the current 780/780i. To me that's a worthy upgrade. While I've been happy overall with my 690, I find that I'm growing tired of relying on SLI support for certain games or having to wait for driver updates for these. Some games run great while some without the proper support only using a single gpu are not playing so well at max settings. So I would rather go with one strong gpu. And if I want to go SLI with a second card down the road (assuming my 1000w PSU can handle it) I may try that. Can anyone speculate if the upcoming 800 series flagships could be a better choice than the Titan Black? Or vice versa?
Rumors say it'll be 256 bit memory bandwidth ? I doubt it'll be a big boost from your 690 maybe some 880 Ti down the road ? I bet it'll cost an arm and leg That's just my 2 cents. Likely I might be wrong.
There is nothing worth upgrading a from a 690 too unless you buy 2 cards. If its a single card upgrade dont bother, wait for the 800 series. Its more of a sidegrade than an upgrade.
Nope, going to have to wait it out like the rest of us. As the posts above, you're better off staying with the 690 than upgrading to a single gpu at this time.
If sli bothers you just sell the 690 and pick up a 780ti. Same if not better performance without the headaches. At only 1080p a 780ti will hold you over well in to the 9 series
I have a GTX590 and I'm waiting for the 800 series to flesh out if that makes you feel better about your 690.
Coming from sli 680, there is no single card worth upgrading to. A 690 more of the same. Nothing worth upgrading to. @op keep that 690 and wait for Maxwell.
OP - I would recommend waiting for the 880, definitely a better choice than the Titan Black because of cost and being able to get a nice 3rd party cooled card. It will outperform the 690 and double your VRAM.
9XX series. I (as others have mentioned) srsly doubt with the current DX9-11 game engines/graphics engines, that you'll need something better than what you already have got. Now, once we go to DX12 and 2015 and the 9XX series GFX cards, then yeah, I think it'll be a good time to upgrade. #The games will demand it IMHO by 2015, the engines they are building now are gonna demand more than what you have now by some margins. You're in good hands.
Coming from a 780 SLI owner, I can say safely what I'm about to tell you. The GTX 690 is still plenty powerful since its a Dual-GPU board. Also if you did upgrade to GTX 780 or GTX 780 Ti, you would be fixed at 3GB Vram. The problem with this is, some of the newer games in the last year are capping out the 3GB Vram, especially at 2K+ resolutions. This in turn can cause "stutters" when the game loads/unloads textures. Unless you get two GTX 780 6GB cards. So honestly I think you have two choices here. 1.) Keep what you have until the GTX 800 series specs show up that are 100% legit, then decide. 2.) If you are not worried about having the absolute fastest GPU's out there, you could buy two GTX 780 6GB's now and OC them, and they would still pack a huge punch. OC'd the 780 can match a stock 780 Ti and even be a tad bit faster. The GTX 880 spec rumors don't show it but maybe 15-20% faster at most than the GTX 780 Ti. But those are rumors right now. Don't even think about the TTIAN-Z. Yes it's a Dual-GPU card like your 690, but it is way OP'd for what it is. Unless you need DP and game at the same time that is. I would not bother with TITAN BLACK just for gaming. For the price of the TITAN BLACK you can spend a little more on two 6GB 780's easily. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7040&cm_re=GTX_780_6GB-_-14-487-040-_-Product Two of these are 1187.98 USD (including basic ground shipping) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7036&cm_re=TITAN_BLACK-_-14-487-036-_-Product Just one of these is 1103.99 (including basic ground shipping) So like I said, two of these especially at 1080p and 1440p will be perfect. My 3 GB 780's have no issues holding 60FPS in any game new or old at 1440p with max settings. I'll get the occasional stutter due to hitting my Vram cap in some new games, but that is because of my 3GB Vram limit. If you buy the 6GB 780's you would be fine, and in SLI, they would be faster than a single TITAN BLACK by far.
As others have said, wait. There is no reason to upgrade anything when all we are getting is broken console ports. I might even skip X99 unless it is truly jaw dropping. If it's only ~10% over IB-E then I'm not going to go through the headache. I seriously doubt the mid range Maxwell will be that impressive (at least from a performance standpoint) and more than likely ridiculously overpriced as well. As always, time will tell.
Just need to wait. I'm in the same boat. Basically next single card that has 20%+ performance I'm buying. I'm done with SLI for a while.
Thanks everyone for the amazing feedback. My guy instincts to wait seem to be the best choice. I'll wait to see what comes of the 8xx series. While I love SLI, it's just a pain when the game you want to play doesn't support it. So I feel like I'd rather save the headaches and try to find the best single GPU that can ideally handle 1440p at max settings (cause I'm looking at a monitor upgrade as well). Hoping the GTX 880 is that solution but if I have to SLI it again I will. Side question here.. I just did a new build (specs to the left) and with 2 HDDs, 2 optical drives and that CPU with OC should I be okay if down the road I want to SLI a couple 880's? Would 1000w be safe? I'd hate to have to upgrade my PSU a couple months after buying the current one.
I'm in the same boat. I'm waiting till games like the Witcher 3 and GTAV come out and see how it performs with those and hopefully by then the new cards will be known or released...
+1 And as for the ram debate,Look at the thread 2gb or 4gb card. You don't need 4 gb. There are like 2 games that would need it,one broken game(Watch Dogs),one with a terrible game engine(Wolfenstein) and about 2 games that people mod(Skyrim) and (Fallout 3). This guy is right,most games are bad console ports. There is zero point of 4k gaming right now. And the 6gb cards are laughable,let alone 2 of them! Point is,you don't need anything like that til 4k is mainstream,which will be about 3-4 yrs. 1440p isn't even mainstream yet. If I had the 690,I wouldn't even think about upgrading til the 900 series,you simply don't need to. I'm not spending $1400 on 2 780 ti's just so I can turn on the full flippin shadows.. Its more for bragging rights..