Gtx690s

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theharvardguy

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May 27, 2012
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I have an older asus p5e 775 motherboard, with G9450 overclocked to 3.6 ghz. I know my cpu will probably hold things back, but I'm thinking that cf 7970s will probably be out-powered by a GTX690 with dual 680 cores. The price is about the same for either solution.

The p5e supports 16x pci-e 2.0 lanes per card, so no bottleneck there running two 7970 cards, but I can see where a single dual-gpu card like the GTX690 would run better with pci-e 3.0 of course, and might get bottlenecked with pci-e 2.0.

But if I can run the card on my non-sli motherboard, my next upgrade path will be to get an i5 or i7 sli certified mobo, which will give me another later upgrade path to add a second gtx690.

I have read on newegg some of the reviews, and some of the gtx690 owners are running it on pci-e 2.0 for now.

The fact that the gtx690 has two gpus - does that mean since I would be effectively running sli - do I need a sli certified motherboard - or is my sli certification taken care of by having the two gpus on one single card?

So - I need the most graphics power right now, for about a $1000 budget - on a non-sli motherboard - I do 30" gaming on a 2560x1600 monitor, and I'll be jumping on BF3 and hope to be able to support ultra textures, and 35fps average is fine for me, as long as minimums don't dip too far below 30.

Which will give me more 30" power - cf 7970, or one GTX690?

thanks,
Rich
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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one 690 card runs sli mode inside the card. it has a bridge chip like the z77 uses. it not going to be the video card or the pci slot that might be an issue but the old mb chipset and the size of your power supply. you may plug this beast in and your pc might not boot. a lot of vendors only test the last 2 or three cpu and mb combo.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Jun 14, 2011
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690 is a single slot GPU, so none of the splitting overhead is done on the motherboard, which means it will work in anything with the proper slot.

Your motherboard may have 16x slots, but when run in duel mode they will only run at 8x each or 16x+8x because the platform simply does not have enough PCIe lanes available to fully populate both slots. So you will bottleneck a pair of 7970s, or a single 690 no matter the configuration.

Forget about a bandwidth bottleneck; the more serious concern would be the Ram/bus/cpu bottlenecks as a platform that old (or even most new platforms) cannot crunch enough numbers to keep these kinds of monster cards busy. Other upgrades are a must if you seriously intend to get a monster GPU like this.

There are plenty of reviews out there about what is best for your situation, and it really depends on what specific games you play, and what kind of filtering you enjoy best. Truth be told, both options will trade blows, but either one is going to be mind-blowingly fast, and a huge step up from whatever you are running now, especially if it is from the era 5 years ago that you got your platform.

Personally, I would get a single card to begin with, see if it meets your needs. Then upgrade the platform, and see if that does the trick. Lastly buy the 2nd GPU, or get a new single GPU if things have progressed by the time you have gotten that far.
 
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theharvardguy

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one 690 card runs sli mode inside the card. it has a bridge chip like the z77 uses. it not going to be the video card or the pci slot that might be an issue but the old mb chipset and the size of your power supply. you may plug this beast in and your pc might not boot. a lot of vendors only test the last 2 or three cpu and mb combo.
Click to expand...

Wow - smorizio - interesting information. I didn't consider that.

Well my toughpower 750 is supposed to be able to handle something like this, as well as cf 7970s. I read you to say that the sli certification issue won't be a problem which is good.

No question my p5e q9450 combination is at least 2 - 3 years out of date, not to mention pci-e 2.0. Yes one review on newegg mentioned the card not booting until he made some bios changes - and the change he made was not something I am familiar with.

I found it. Here's what he said:
This would not work until modifying bios settings, at least in my case with this on an Asus sabertooth x79. It would show two 690's in device manager, both with yellow alerts for "problems." The nvidia control panel wouldn't show up, nvidia utilities didn't work, even after driver changes. All I had to do was turn Intel VT/d on and it worked, as well as make sure pci-express is on 3.0.
Click to expand...

He's got an i7 motherboard.

I guess I could risk it, and risk the $150 15% newegg restocking fee. That makes me wonder if cf 7970s will work. Somehow I think they will, but I better read all the newegg reviews to see what mobos guys are running them on.
 
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theharvardguy

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Hi CaedenV,

Thanks for the info. My p5e specifically says it will support two cards in cf, with 16x lanes to each card simultaneously, meaning the full 32x. I double-checked that out in the mobo documentation. But - for sure the mobo is pci-e 2.0, but if I go the cf route, I'm glad to have the full 16x lanes for each card.

I certainly hear you about being cpu bound. Obviously that's my next upgrade. The attraction of the gtx690 - if that will really outperform cf 7970s even at pci-e 2.0 for the time-being, is the smooth upgrade path - first to a modern sli certified i5 or i7 mobo, then to an additional gtx690 for quad sli. At 30" gaming, it's not eye-infinity, but it's twice as many pixels as 1920x1080 gaming, so it's pretty stressful and I don't want to turn down the settings. I have owned crysis and crysis warhead for several years but I have not played them yet because I can't max the settings yet. The only good thing is that I seem to not mind 30-35 fps - whereas some friends are more sensitive and need 40-50 or they notice the difference.

Still, smorizio now has me worried that the single card won't even boot. I guess I could try to read every gtx690 review out there to see if anybody has tried it on a q9450 mobo. Or post a new question. LOL

Rich
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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well damn, looks like I was wrong about your PCI slots, it looks like they are both 16x. In that case the CF solution should be fine, or minor bottleneck, but the single 690 will be a little held back by the interface, but not really before you are bottlenecked by the CPU. But it sounds like that will be fixed before long.

IF I come across a work-around for the mobo/gpu issue I will let you know.
 
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theharvardguy

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Yeah, thanks guys.

I now understand clearly that the GTX 690 does not require a sli certified motherboard. (Unless, Davemaster84, you were disagreeing with that - but I don't think you were.)

But I am now afraid that it just won't boot - and then I'll have to chuck up the $150 re-stocking fee.

That one newegg reviewer had an i7 system and his wouldn't boot without some bios adjustments.

I started to worry - "well maybe the 7970 won't boot up either!" But fortunately I did find one guy on the internet with a Q9550 who had gotten a 7970 and was running it, and planning a near-term cpu upgrade. Just one guy in two hours of google research, and going through all the 7970 newegg reviews! But I was glad to find him.

All you other dudes have moved ahead with i5, i7, phenom 2 and 3, lol.

So I am now moving away from nvidia, and thinking more and more of CF 7970s. I will start with one, in a month or two, then add the other by early Fall. I'll overclock the 9450 as far as I can, but I know I'll still be cpu bound.

But with 30" gaming, and max settings, plus full AA, the graphics cards are going to have a lot of work to do on some of the tougher titles like BF3, and the various versions of Crysis, plus Metro. Max Payne 3 also sounds like fun - 35 gig install on a PC - all for textures - go Rockstar!!!!!!

The one thing I still like about the 7970 is 3 gb ram per card vs 2 gb for gtx680 - the extra ram HAS to help for AA and textures on 30" gaming - it HAS to, lol.

Rich
 
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Davionlove134

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one 690 card runs sli mode inside the card. it has a bridge chip like the z77 uses. it not going to be the video card or the pci slot that might be an issue but the old mb chipset and the size of your power supply. you may plug this beast in and your pc might not boot. a lot of vendors only test the last 2 or three cpu and mb combo.
Click to expand...

What's the best motherboard to run the gtx 690 in SLI?
 
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schnitter

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There isn't a "the best". All top mobos will do rigth. I'd get asus Maximus V formula or extreme if CPU IS 1155 or rampage 4 extreme if it is 2011 socket. If you have AMD then, lol, get your priorities right.
 
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willard

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With a pair of $1k video cards, you want to be looking to the top of the line boards. A strong case could be made for going with an LGA 2011 rig. If you go AMD, you're a moron.

You wouldn't buy a Lamborghini then put a Mini Cooper's engine in it, would you? Then don't buy a pair of GTX 690s and put an AMD chip behind them.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Since price seems to be no object, you will want a motherboard with two pci-e slots each operating in X16 mode.
But, it is uncertain how much you will gain with X8/X8.
I think the number is <5%.

What cpu will you be using?

Is this for a triple monitor gaming rig?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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On a single 1080P monitor, a single GTX690 is a bit of overkill.

To answer your question, a ASRock Z77 Extreme9 Would have two slots operating at X16/X16 and do the job.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157322

In truth, though, I can't recommend what you are contemplating.

For gaming on a single monitor, even a 2560 x 1600 monitor, there is no need for more than a single GTX690 and a simple Z77 based motherboard. Save the extra, and spend it elsewhere.
 
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