Question about GTX 690(and dual-gpus overall)

kapul4

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Oct 17, 2014
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Greetings, I couldn't find reliable source because everyone on every forum and thread says differently about dual-gpus so hopefully someone here who had experience with them will give me correct information. I am planing to buy GTX 690 because of how cheap they became but I read somewhere that its can only use 2GB of total because its an SLI card ,then I started researching,and everyone is saying differently. I know that GPU1 cannot use the memory of the GPU2, but let's say if game requires 3GB,how is the memory managed? Also what happens if I disable one of the GPUs? Does 4GB get allocated to the GPU that is turned on because both of them share same memory controller or you still have 2GB?
 
Solution
The GTX 690 is going to come in somewhere between a GTX 980 and GTX 970 on this chart (I checked back into the older charts that had a GTX 690 represented). Have you checked the price of GTX 980s/970s? Those must be getting cheap too.

perfrel_1920_1080.png
There are 4GB of VRAM modules on the card, but they are mirrored between both GPUs. So realistically there is 2GB usable. If you go over, its the same as running out on any card, you wont be able to use the other Vram.
Disabling one GPU wont do anything either.

I would recommend against the 690 not only due to the low memory amount, or due to it being a dual GPU card (that itself is a whole mess) but due to the simple age of the card.

Something like a 480 would perform better than a 690 on its best days.
 
memory does not stack, you will be using 2gb regardless of how you mess with settings. Unless the 690 is VERY cheap, or you live up north and your room is cold there is no reason to buy it over a newer card. You also need a much beefier PSU to power a 690 compared to newer similar performing cards.
 

kapul4

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Oct 17, 2014
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Ok thanks for the help guys,but why is there 4gb on GTX 690 in the first place? I mean it's not like they just merged 2 PCBs into one so it was cheaper for them to not remove memory,but it's totally new design. I was looking to buy 690 because of paid/gained ratio. Card in benchmarks performs better than GTX 980,but on craigslist it is cheaper by at least 70-80$.And also it is a Kepler card(GK104),and it's the same chip they recycled for 770 so I also think that driver issues shouldn't be a problem. But after all I might get 780 or 780ti becauses of 690s low memory,besides watercooled versions of them are priced cheaper than stock 690.Thanks for ur help guys.
 
The GTX 690 is going to come in somewhere between a GTX 980 and GTX 970 on this chart (I checked back into the older charts that had a GTX 690 represented). Have you checked the price of GTX 980s/970s? Those must be getting cheap too.

perfrel_1920_1080.png
 
Solution

Muhammad Farooqi

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Apr 21, 2014
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Dear I own two cards, gtx 690 and gtx 780. on another thread (http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3329068/geforce-gtx-690-render-quality-poor-gigabyte-gtx-780.html) i'm also trying to find out any reason. if buying a used 690 was a good decision or not.. I bought 690 while I already have 780. I created one scene in 3ds max 2017, set IRay it's renderer, and started target rendering output for 3 minutes and 4k of resolution.

the 780 one, finished in 4.3 minutes.. while 690 finished in 5.2, also output quality was not so good as compare to 780, then i posted that thread..

After reading comments of some gurus, I realized may be some settings should be changed, like turning off sli was a good idea but I didn't turned off.
For Blender, I 've seen many videos in youtube, they run one 690 (disabling sli and using only one GPU) 690 runs like a charm but i am unable so far to achieve that performance or setup the Hardware configurations ..

I don't know why Autodesk (the giant in 3d applications) Certifies and recommends only 4 GTXs along with Quadros.. GTX 690,Titan, Titanx, and TitanZ ..
Check out this link if you doubt. https://knowledge.autodesk.com/sites/default/files/file_downloads/3dsmax2017_GFX_Results.pdf
Page 3 for gtx 690 and page 6 for 780, and my 780 is under "tested" ... not certified. while i'm seeing better performance in 780 than 690.

It purely seems 690 is for 3D Applications/Rendering not for Gamers..


I'm more than 100% sure there must be some settings issue, some configurations or there must be something that Autodesk recommends this 690. You know 690 is 2 generations OLDER but still recommended by 3D Giant Autodesk, so that is not without any reason.... even in 3ds max 2015, 2016, 2017!