GTX 690 vs. GTX 980ti

[TheRat62]

I'm thinking of selling my 690 and putting the cash towards a 980ti. I don't plan on using resolutions higher than 1080p for now but I also like to game at max graphics/aa at a stable 60fps.

The 690 has trouble handling certain games and holding them locked at 60fps. Will the 980ti help me out here? Is it worth the upgrade?

Should I wait another year?

CPU: i5 3470

[Tinzy]

The 980ti is a pretty decent step up from a 690. Tbh the 980ti's are beastly from what I've seen. (I'm running sli'd 980's, only 2 people I know have the ti's, and they are getting pretty impressive performance)

Though, it might be worth waiting until the 16-19th of june ish when amd unveils their new range with stacked memory etc. and see whats on offer.

[TheRat62]

Ok thanks!

People think the 690 is indestructible at 60fps but it has it's limitations. There are plenty of games that I can't get a stable 60fps in. That's all I'm looking for.

It's hard to find benchmarks for newer cards vs. the 600 series cards.

[76561198135154379]

The 690 is a dual GPU and that comes with issues. Not all games are optimized well enough to even handle SLI. That might explain the games that can't hold 60 FPS.

I personally would hock the 690 and grab a 980 ti.

[Tinzy]

To be fair, the 690 does have fairly blistering performance at 1080p, but I wouldn't trust it for a solid 60fps with settings maxed in a lot of modern games. The witcher 3 for example, I reckon would be a solid struggle to get anywhere near a solid 60fps, even with aa and other settings cranked down some.

In the witcher 3 with a single 980 - not the ti - you can crank most settings up and still maintain a solid 60fps pretty easily on a base clocked card.

Now Im just speaking from my own experience here, and things may differ a little from person to person, but I cant see a 690 giving you the performance and settings you're looking for.

[TheRat62]

Yeah trust me there are certain games that the 690 struggles with I was kind of surprised when I bought it 2 years ago because I was led to believe that the 690 would be overkill for modern games and there were older games that it struggled with in certain ways.

Still couldn't even run Crysis totally maxed with 60fps.. it was still the best performance I've ever gotten but frame rate dips are unfortunate and often look pretty terrible imo.

[76561198135154379]

Assuming equal price, you go with the single GPU instead of multi.

Assuming equal performance, you still go with a single GPU because it might not have equal performance in other games.

Games and drivers will likely be optimized toward single GPU's first then maybe SLI later--if at all.

Although, DX12 is promising miracles and might change that but only for new cards.

[Tinzy]

Do keep in mind about the AMD unveil on the 16th, even if you're a Nvidia purist - like I am :)

It will be interesting to see what they've come up with.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-hmb-gpu-launch-date,29268.html

[TheRat62]

Yes that's true. I feel like AMD is a little shady but at the same time I'm not in a huge rush to pick up a 980ti. I definitely think I want to get my 690 sold ASAP though regardless to get as much money as I can out of it.

Maybe if I'm patient enough I can store that money, and wait until the reveal their next set of cards or wait until the price of the 980ti drops. Who knows, but I'll pay attention to what AMD's got just for the hell of it.

You never know. It's just all this buzz about the 980ti low price/great graphics kind of got me to get my ass in gear a little bit.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Riley ♡♡♡:

Assuming equal price, you go with the single GPU instead of multi.

Assuming equal performance, you still go with a single GPU because it might not have equal performance in other games.

Games and drivers will likely be optimized toward single GPU's first then maybe SLI later--if at all.

Although, DX12 is promising miracles and might change that but only for new cards.

Yes that is true. I watched a benchmark of a 690 vs. a 980 and you can really tell which games were optimized for SLI and which ones weren't. And down the road, I can always get a second 980ti for sli whereas with 690 all I can do is go the "Quad-SLI" route and that just sounds pointless from what I've heard.

In the ones that were optimized, the 690 was able to beat the 980 but in the ones that weren't the 980 schooled the 690.

[Azza ☠]

The GTX 980 Ti would own 1440p at very high/ultra.

It's overkill for 1080p, unless you are planning on a 120/144Hz 1ms response time monitor. Or just don't care about it discarding extra frames (while maxed out), then you could always keep it for future proofing.

The other option (depending how old/bad your current monitor) would be to upgrade the monitor instead and keep with the GTX 690 for now. If you wish to stick will 1080p - just get a BenQ XL monitor or similar with 1080p - 1ms response - 120/144Hz refresh and G-SYNC. This G-SYNC syncs monitors to your Nvidia graphics card and will smooth out your graphic card for frame dipping / stuttering / tearing even if not always maxing out the FPS.

[TheRat62]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Azza ☠:

. Or just don't care about it discarding extra frames (while maxed out), then you could always keep it for future proofing..

Does future proofing mean holding onto the card so that I can continue to max out games that come out in the future (a year-two years down the road)?

Because if so, that's why I want an overkill card. I want something that'll destroy 1080p now and keep me in decent shape for a couple years maxing out games at 1080p.

690 already shows limitations with some of my older games.

[Tinzy]

Just on the topic of future proofing for 4k etc, I noticed this article that I found interesting. (Now, its a pcgamer article, so should be taken with a bucket of salt until confimation from multiple sources.)

http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-gtx-980-ti-2-way-sli-nearly-doubles-performance-at-4k/

[˜lokkandload˜™]

Wow ya so go out and hurry to drop a quick 1500 CAISH for two SLI Tis...not gonna happen pass thanks!!!!

[TheRat62]

not immediately but down the road when the price drops from it's already decent launch price why not?

[Tinzy]

I think a lot of people these days who are willing to shell out for a high end card, have plans to SLI another one in later to keep up with the increased demand in games as time goes on. (Unless a new 'gen' or significant technological advancement is made in the interim of course, and upgrading is a better option)

[˜lokkandload˜™]

I'll wait until DX12 fully develops and see what NVidia's Pascal architecture is gonna do before an upgrade. Right now quite content with a single GTX 980 FTW on a BenQ 27' 144hz monitor with 1080p gaming. It's quite amazing and runs everything on that ultra all day just fine. Worst case I can chose to do another 980 FTW SLI which benchmarks show will outperform a TitanX on most games even on 4k. 4k is just a cool golly gee whiz nice to have, Dell's even demoing and touting 5K, looks insanely good. But just not worth the tons of money to jump when most games aren't 4k developed and probably won't be for a while.

Another bad thing is most games aren't fully optimized for SLI and CF anyway...always had to turn a card off when I had dual 660 SSCs. That and the fact that DX12 is supposedly able to support stacked VRAM so SLI or CF actually is more of a real benefit to gaming with them than not.