GTX 690 or GTX Titan?

stryder8701 · **GTX 690 or GTX Titan? -** 02-19-2013, 19:05 | posts: 107 | Location: NY

I have had my EVGA GTX 690 for a couple of weeks now and it is a great card. Now, with the arrival of this new powerhouse Geforce GTX Titan, and it being a single-GPU card, and with aftermarket OC versions coming, I think it might be a good replacement for a dual-GPU card which still would suffer from game incompatiblities with SLi, microstuttering, etc. What do you guys think? I will wait for reviews coming later this week and such I think. But, I would have to return my 690 by March 2nd, so time is ticking. What do you guys think?

scheherazade · 02-19-2013, 19:25 | posts: 1,907 | Location: NOVA

As a new buyer, a titan is the better buy.
As a 690 owner, the titan doesn't offer you much, if anything.

A single card has historically performed better than an equivalently powerful SLI setup - taking into account the moments when you run into compatibility/stutter issues.

Whatever pluses the 690 has over the titan top-speed-wise, it has potential sli-scaling/compatibility minuses to make up for them. (meaning that it's potentially a toss up)

That said, a 690 will run anything that's out there, very well.
So would a 690 in single card mode (single 670 equivalent).
So would a 680.
So would a Titan.

If you're doing normal resolution, then all the cards are fast enough for the current lot of games.

At high resolutions, a 690/Titan will shine above a 670/680.
At high resolutions, a 690 scales well.

Basically, you should only run into real SLI scaling issues at lower rez, but it won't matter because it's lower rez, and you can comfortably run a game in single-card-mode.

It's kind of all the same... UNLESS you currently have a game you want to play, and SLI is having issues.
In which case, the Titan could be worth it, if you can sell the 690 for a good price.

-scheherazade

Veteran · 02-19-2013, 20:25 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Titan is a waste of time if you own a 690.

What card you pick depends on your resolution.

1920*1200 or under=690.
Higher than this res=Titan.

All the stuttering issues associated with dual gpus disappeared with the 690 because of how its made, its works better than 680's in sli as confirmed by reviewers.

yasamoka · 02-19-2013, 20:43 | posts: 907 | Location: Lebanon

Shouldn't 680s also suffer from no stutter as the 690? They all have hardware frame metering, which has existed since the 8800GTX apparently, although previous gen cards did have microstutter.

Veteran · 02-19-2013, 20:54 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by yasamoka

Shouldn't 680s also suffer from no stutter as the 690? They all have hardware frame metering, which has existed since the 8800GTX apparently, although previous gen cards did have microstutter.

Yes but there are some games that stutter from it that users reported like Sleeping dogs i think whereas 690 users had no such problems.

If you dont beleive me about 690 microstutter then dig out the many many reviews across the net and see for yourself or better still go buy one and you can see for yourself firsthand

ground_zero298 · 02-19-2013, 20:58 | posts: 459 | Location: michigan

I'd wait for the oc reviews on Thursday. If the 690 works well for you, hold on to it. Should be worth more than the Titan in a year or 2 when you go to sell it.

---TK--- · 02-19-2013, 22:37 | posts: 14,677 | Location: New Jersey, USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by yasamoka

Shouldn't 680s also suffer from no stutter as the 690? They all have hardware frame metering, which has existed since the 8800GTX apparently, although previous gen cards did have microstutter.

7800gt sli, 8800gtx sli, 295 single and quad sli, 580 sli all had micro stuttering. 580 sli had it to a much smaller degree. 680 sli I notice no microstuttering. I owned all these cards

ESlik · 02-19-2013, 22:46 | posts: 1,588 | Location: Sault Ste. Marie Ont. CA

Go for the Titan. Maximum PC did a review,and had 4 Titan's hooked up. They said the cards ran near silent. They're about 1 inch shorter than a 690,use less power,run a lot cooler,and one Titan is about as fast as a 690. The Titan is a real hum dinger. I'm for sure getting at least one of them. Maybe two. I'm crazy,so two might just happen.

Veteran · 02-19-2013, 23:17 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESlik

Go for the Titan. Maximum PC did a review,and had 4 Titan's hooked up. They said the cards ran near silent. They're about 1 inch shorter than a 690,use less power,run a lot cooler,and one Titan is about as fast as a 690. The Titan is a real hum dinger. I'm for sure getting at least one of them. Maybe two. I'm crazy,so two might just happen.

Yeah you have to get atleast two and then show some pictures for people to drool over haha

CPC_RedDawn · 02-19-2013, 23:22 | posts: 4,414 | Location: Wolverhampton/United Kingdom

690 by a long way. Even without reviews of the titan we can all agree that price for a single card is just insane! Wait til its released and the 690 might get a price reduction or you might see idiots slapping their 690's on ebay in order to buy a titan LOL.

ESlik · 02-19-2013, 23:46 | posts: 1,588 | Location: Sault Ste. Marie Ont. CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPC_RedDawn

690 by a long way. Even without reviews of the titan we can all agree that price for a single card is just insane! Wait til its released and the 690 might get a price reduction or you might see idiots slapping their 690's on ebay in order to buy a titan LOL.

The price is not all that insane, when you consider the 690 goes for a grand or more. Once the Titan is released,there will be no reason to buy a 690. No reason at all. Think about it. There are a lot of advantages running one card that's every bit as fast as two. Driver issues etc. not withstanding.

Veteran · 02-19-2013, 23:53 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESlik

The price is not all that insane, when you consider the 690 goes for a grand or more. Once the Titan is released,there will be no reason to buy a 690. No reason at all. Think about it. There are a lot of advantages running one card that's every bit as fast as two. Driver issues etc. not withstanding.

The 690 is almost £150-£200 cheaper in the UK than the Titan and at this very moment in time as we know it outperforms the Titan.

Also the issues that plagued many dual gpus from the past (Micro-Stuttering, Bad scaling) are gone with the 690 because of its design hence its expensive price.

You will get more micro stuttering from 2x 680s in sli than a 690 and that is a fact as its been well documented.

According to Hilbert at full load the 690 runs 5 degrees cooler aswell.
But the Titan beats the 690 at Powerdraw.

To me choosing which card depends what resolution you game at.

But like all the technology, there is always something bigger and better lurking around the corner, normally in the shorterm with gpu's rather than the longterm like cpus.

scheherazade · 02-20-2013, 01:24 | posts: 1,907 | Location: NOVA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veteran

Titan is a waste of time if you own a 690.

What card you pick depends on your resolution.

1920*1200 or under=690.
Higher than this res=Titan.

All the stuttering issues associated with dual gpus disappeared with the 690 because of how its made, its works better than 680's in sli as confirmed by reviewers.

SLI scales best at high rez.
You'd want to do something like 2560x1440 and up, with just enough AA to not run out of Vram.

Although SLI scaling matters little at lower rez, since even one of the 690's GPUs will do well at lower rez.
So really, it just doesn't matter.

Titan, being a single card, will just be good everywhere.

However, that 6gig frame buffer...
Seriously, that's a lot of ram.
You need a lot of pixels and a lot of AA to overflow that buffer.

Basically, I suspect that if you want to use settings high enough to max out 6 gigs of vram, and have high fps, you'll prolly need SLI anyways.

-scheherazade

PowerK · 02-20-2013, 06:11 | posts: 280

I sold my 690s the other day. Going for Titans!

ground_zero298 · 02-20-2013, 14:29 | posts: 459 | Location: michigan

Better hope its not 1 per household. You might need to get creative

ESlik · 02-20-2013, 14:52 | posts: 1,588 | Location: Sault Ste. Marie Ont. CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerK

I sold my 690s the other day. Going for Titans!

You have used the plural. Does that mean you're getting two of them? Maybe I'm not the only "go for the overkill" nut. I'm getting two for sure!

yasamoka · 02-20-2013, 15:12 | posts: 907 | Location: Lebanon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veteran

Yes but there are some games that stutter from it that users reported like Sleeping dogs i think whereas 690 users had no such problems.

If you dont beleive me about 690 microstutter then dig out the many many reviews across the net and see for yourself or better still go buy one and you can see for yourself firsthand

Hehehe no I understand there is practically none.

Veteran · 02-20-2013, 20:14 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESlik

You have used the plural. Does that mean you're getting two of them? Maybe I'm not the only "go for the overkill" nut. I'm getting two for sure!

I dont think 2 or even 3 is overkill tbh especially on multi monitors or 120hz with everything maxxed out.

I think 4 is overkill however.

sykozis · 02-20-2013, 20:25 | posts: 13,479 | Location: US East Coast

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veteran

The 690 is almost £150-£200 cheaper in the UK than the Titan and at this very moment in time as we know it outperforms the Titan.

Also the issues that plagued many dual gpus from the past (Micro-Stuttering, Bad scaling) are gone with the 690 because of its design hence its expensive price.

You will get more micro stuttering from 2x 680s in sli than a 690 and that is a fact as its been well documented.

According to Hilbert at full load the 690 runs 5 degrees cooler aswell.
But the Titan beats the 690 at Powerdraw.

To me choosing which card depends what resolution you game at.

But like all the technology, there is always something bigger and better lurking around the corner, normally in the shorterm with gpu's rather than the longterm like cpus.

What exactly is different about the design of the 690 compared to the 590 or 295?

To my knowledge, micro-stuttering exists with every multi-gpu setup due to GPU's completing and outputting frames at different rates..... Unless output isn't being handled by the GPU's and instead by a dedicated display output chip with it's own resources, micro-stutter would still exist to some extent and whether or not it's actually noticeable would be dependent on your own sensitivity to it.

Agent-A01 · 02-20-2013, 21:09 | posts: 5,617 | Location: USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veteran

I dont think 2 or even 3 is overkill tbh especially on multi monitors or 120hz with everything maxxed out.

I think 4 is overkill however.

yes 2 would be perfect for 2560x1440 @120hz.. ill get one for now, and wait until they are cheaper for 2nd if possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykozis

What exactly is different about the design of the 690 compared to the 590 or 295?

To my knowledge, micro-stuttering exists with every multi-gpu setup due to GPU's completing and outputting frames at different rates..... Unless output isn't being handled by the GPU's and instead by a dedicated display output chip with it's own resources, micro-stutter would still exist to some extent and whether or not it's actually noticeable would be dependent on your own sensitivity to it.

microstuttering is a result of AFR.. SFR does not get it but thats another story.

PowerK · 02-22-2013, 01:02 | posts: 280

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESlik

You have used the plural. Does that mean you're getting two of them? Maybe I'm not the only "go for the overkill" nut. I'm getting two for sure!

Yes. Depending on the availability, I'm going for 2-Way or 3-Way TITAN SLI.

Veteran · 02-22-2013, 01:10 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykozis

What exactly is different about the design of the 690 compared to the 590 or 295?

To my knowledge, micro-stuttering exists with every multi-gpu setup due to GPU's completing and outputting frames at different rates..... Unless output isn't being handled by the GPU's and instead by a dedicated display output chip with it's own resources, micro-stutter would still exist to some extent and whether or not it's actually noticeable would be dependent on your own sensitivity to it.

Ok im lying, I get lots and lots of microstuttering and i continue to play my games at an inferior level to everyone else,OK

---TK--- · 02-22-2013, 01:17 | posts: 14,677 | Location: New Jersey, USA

its not evident on my setup and I had a lot of sli cards that had it. if its there its ever so slightly

Veteran · 02-22-2013, 01:22 | posts: 7,380 | Location: United kingdom

Sykozis why dont you google Hardware based Frame metering.
That should answer the question that 1000 reviews of the 690 has already answered.

Im sick of explaining to people that 690 was designed differently to other dual cards.

If you cant be bothered to research it then GTFO.

Agent-A01 · 02-22-2013, 01:37 | posts: 5,617 | Location: USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veteran

Sykozis why dont you google Hardware based Frame metering.
That should answer the question that 1000 reviews of the 690 has already answered.

Im sick of explaining to people that 690 was designed differently to other dual cards.

If you cant be bothered to research it then GTFO.

ALL Multi gpu configs get microstuttering. Its not possible to not have it to some extent unless your get rid of AFR. You will always have it until we find another technique to render graphics. Nvidia has lessened this effect very much starting with fermi, and more-so with kepler. Regardless, its still there. 690s are no different than 2-way sli 680s regarding microstuttering.