My Korean monitor just died so I grabbed a Dell P2715Q 4k monitor. My current video card is a GTX690. I was planning on building a new rig next year when the next iteration of chips from nVidia and Intel arrive. For now it looks like my choices are: 1. Keep my single GTX690 2. Add a second GTX690 3. Get two 980's in SLI 4. Get a Titan X Adding a second GTX690 (~$300) is within my budget but I really don't want to drop $1k plus on video cards at present. Will a second GTX690 do me any good or should I just play at lower res / settings until I build a new rig next year?
I suggest that you keep your money and when ready go with a newer gpu, bying another one 690 you will regret it.
Quad SLI is pretty awful for most games so yeah. Also unless you have a 4GB 690 you're gonna have a bad time.
The 690 is 4GB. I have a played ESO at 4k and it was fine but it isn't exactly the most intensive game. Guess I will be waiting and playing at lower res / settings for a while. Having just bought my daughter a car and needing to pay for her college this Fall means I have better things to spend $1k on than video cards at present
690 is 4GB but 2GB per GPU mirrored in SLI mode. So you still have 2GB VRAM. Same on all SLI and Crossfire rigs. My SLI 970's are 8GB but 4GB per GPU mirrored.
Can you wait until the rumoured launch of the 980Ti in June/July? That would probably be your best option.
I'd wait on the 980ti (I know I am), Quad SLI isn't worth it considering the lousy scaling in a lot of games. I also have a 4k monitor (XB280HK) and I can play some older games fine at 4k, but most only run well @1080p (Gsync helps a lot though @4k) I'd save the money and spend it on the refresh of the current generation or maybe the 390 if it's any good, as the current cards aren't that suited yet for max detail 4k gaming (medium detail is fine though, but blowing that much money and then play at medium........)
One fellow user who just upgraded from a 690 said the the problem he was having with the 690 was running out of Vram. So your best bet would be to wait and upgrade to a card that has more than 2gb of Vram for 4k.
2GB VRAM isn't enough for 1080p max settings in a lot of newer games at the moment so even with more power at 4K you wouldn't have anywhere near enough VRAM. Personally I'd wait for the next generation GPU's, not even the Titan X (or 980Ti) overclocked or not is doing that well at 4K because the performance hit is huge, then again if you don't need/want max settings then a 980Ti is your best bet or potentially the 390x if it turns out to be good.
I would defint' NOT go with another GTX 690 because of the 2gb frame buffer limit(Mirrored). I would defin't go with 2 gtx 970's, overclock thoses badboys. When win10 comes out, you will able to stack vram even further. I would keep the gtx690 as a backup or just sell it and get 2 970's, or better yet, wait for just a bit, gtx 980 ti's are around the corner and the radeon 390x. 2 GTX 690's seems interesting with win10 and able to stack vram, I wouldn't mind doing that and do some benches on it.
If im not mistaken, the gpus will need a specific controller chip to be able to stack vram in sli / crossfire mode, something which the current gpu's dont have. So as far as ive understood, stacked vram wont be a reality until pascal as the earliest, or even ever, as nvidia wouldnt be able to milk us with titans, if you could simply stack vram across multiple gpu's.
Go with a Titan X or wait for the 980Ti. You have waited this long so it wont hurt to wait abit longer. I just upgraded from a 690 to a Titan X because of the vram limit. DO NOT BUY ANOTHER 690 as you will regret it.
+1 I have used a pair of GTX 690s @4K, they are fantastic for reading emails and browsing websites but that is about it. For gaming they are a dead loss. There are already games like Watch Dogs that can use 8gb of VRAM @4K and this is only going to get worse.
Hahaha, I was laughing so hard at this. Thanks for a good start to the day! To OP: I just made a similar choice and went for the Titan X. 980Ti could be an option in the future. But here and now, Titan X is the only card that comes close to powering UHD resolution.
