GTX 690 vs GTX 1060 3GB

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SilverFortyTwo

SilverFortyTwo

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Jan 22, 2017
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I'm torn between the GTX 690 SLI and GTX 1060 3GB. I'm very impressed with the benchmarks of both, and the 690 is significantly cheaper where I live (about 50GBP cheaper). However, being an older card that utilises SLI, I have some concerns. Does it support DX12? Some sources says it does, some say it doesn't. Are there many games that will struggle to utilise the SLI?

Some different benchmarks have given interesting results. Crisis 3 on the 690 at 1080p/V.High never dipped below 60FPS and stayed about 30FPS on the 1060, but some games had inverse results. Which should I get? I could also afford to fork out a little more for the 6GB version of the 1060 as I've found a few decent deals.
 
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Aeacus
In gaming, it's better to use one more powerful GPU than two weaker ones in SLI.

Reason for that is fairly simple, while SLI basically syncs two GPUs to work together as one, it has several issues being efficient enough in gaming. Most notably the reason that not all games support SLI. And when a game even does support SLI, it's a good headache to make the SLI work properly.

SLI is beneficial in video rendering and 3D design where the GPU processing power is most needed. It's fairly common to see 2-way, 3-way or even 4-way SLI configurations in a workstation build.

Also with SLI, you have far higher power consumption and heat production than using a single GPU.
GTX 690 alone is 300W GPU, add 2nd one and SLI and two GPUs alone can...
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Aeacus

Aeacus

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Mar 21, 2015
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In gaming, it's better to use one more powerful GPU than two weaker ones in SLI.

Reason for that is fairly simple, while SLI basically syncs two GPUs to work together as one, it has several issues being efficient enough in gaming. Most notably the reason that not all games support SLI. And when a game even does support SLI, it's a good headache to make the SLI work properly.

SLI is beneficial in video rendering and 3D design where the GPU processing power is most needed. It's fairly common to see 2-way, 3-way or even 4-way SLI configurations in a workstation build.

Also with SLI, you have far higher power consumption and heat production than using a single GPU.
GTX 690 alone is 300W GPU, add 2nd one and SLI and two GPUs alone can consume up to 650W. Add the rest of the system at about 200W and total would be around 850W. That kind of system needs at least 1kW (1000W) PSU. Good quality 1kW PSUs doesn't come with cheap prices.
While with GTX 1060, the GPU is 150W. Add the rest of the system at about 200W and total would be 350W. Here, a good 500W range PSU will do fine. Also, there's plenty of PSUs to choose from in 500W range.

Two 300W GPUs do produce a lot of heat too. Are you ready to cope with extra heat production?

So, i don't suggest going for 2-way SLI on GTX 690 over GTX 1060 if most what you do is gaming.

Btw, GTX 690 doesn't support DX12.
specs: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-690/specifications

As far as going with either GTX 1060 3GB or 6GB version, in general, the performance gain is 6% while the price goes up by 15%.
comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/3646vs3639

In my Skylake build (full specs in my sig), i have GTX 1060 3GB version. I did think going with 6GB version but the 6GB version did costed €80 more than 3GB version. To pay €80 more for mere 6% gain wasn't efficient enough, so i settled with 3GB version. I have to say that i don't regret my decision. With the extra €80, i was able to get far better PSU than i initially planned.
 
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