

Both AMD and Nvidia do an admirable job of keeping idle noise low, even from dual-GPU cards and dual-card arrays.
This is a result of idle temperatures that remain manageable.


I flipped back and forth trying to figure out which of the GeForce GTX 690’s two GPUs would get hotter, but the warmest processor only got up to 78 degrees under load. That’s particularly impressive considering a single GeForce GTX 680 peaks at 79 degrees, while two 680s in SLI push the inside card’s chip to 83 degrees.
Maintaining that modest temperature isn’t a problem for the GeForce GTX 690, either. True to Nvidia’s word, its flagship operates more quietly than a pair of GeForce GTX 680s in SLI (though it measured a little louder than a GeForce GTX 590).
The more meaningful victory is over a single Radeon HD 7970—not to mention the acoustic train wreck that is two. Fortunately for AMD, its board partners are abandoning its reference cooling design en masse. In Five Radeon HD 7970 3 GB Cards, Overclocked And Benchmarked, all four of the aftermarket-cooled models ended up quieter than the card with the noisy centrifugal blower (though Gigabyte’s three-fan implementation did get pretty loud under its maximum overclock).
- GeForce GTX 690 4 GB: Hands-Off The Magnesium, Pal!
- Overclocking And Tessellation Performance
- PCI Express 3.0 And What Of GK110?
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11 (DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3 (DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: Crysis 2 (DX 9 And DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (DX 9)
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 3 (DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: Metro 2033 (DX 11)
- Benchmark Results: Sandra 2012 And LuxMark 2.0
- Noise And Temperatures
- Power Consumption
- GeForce GTX 690 4 GB: Beauty Isn’t Always Practical
6990 aren't that hard to find. Back in January before the 7000 series came out, you could easily pick one or two up. I am pretty sure in 6 month, the 690 will be easy to grab.
Also the design of this reminds me of my old leadtek 5900
http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/gffx-27/leadtek-5900lx-front.jpg
GTX 590 launch...
GTX 580 launch price: $500
GTX 590 launch price: $700
Difference: 140%
Now today GTX 690 launch...
GTX 680 launch price: $500
GTX 690 launch price: $1000
Difference: 200%
So, is it just me or is nVidia really gouging on the price here?
Why the hell else would they be charging an additional 43% more than their last dual GPU launch while using less silicon?
Come on AMD, we really need some more competition here.
The only use case for that much graphics hardware is excessively high multi monitor resolutions like 6k x 2k in 3d. AMD doesn't need to invest in new PCB designs to make a dual cpu GCN chip yet because the demand is so low.