Monday, April 30th 2012
A Crate at TechPowerUp's Doorstep
A little earlier this month, NVIDIA spent quite some money on premium courier to send us a package that wasn't exactly light. On opening it, we found a fun-size steel crowbar with an NVIDIA logo inscribed on it, and a message that read "for use in case of zombies or..." which was pretty cryptic. We thanked NVIDIA for the back-scratching tool, and got back to work. While Gabe Newell made the crowbar a pop-culture symbol, there is only one socially-acceptable use of this otherwise boring tool: opening wooden crates, which were used to ship stuff overseas, before modern containers came to be. One such crate made its way to our doorstep, not floating over the sea, but gliding its way over the Autobahn aboard another expensive "same day" courier.
The top of the crate sure was catchy, which cautioned us of "weapons grade gaming power". Its side had a geekspeak print. "0b1010110010" is binary for "690" (0b is a binary prefix). The other two lines make no sense. Upon opening the crate, and a sheet of foam, there it is, something we'll be toying with for the better part of this week.
We doubt if any AIC partner can match the design finesse of NVIDIA reference design GeForce GTX 690 (pictured below). Built with advanced materials such as a magnesium alloy that supercar engines are made of, NVIDIA's card design has some serious performance-oriented design gone into it. The central portion, which cools the VRM and bridge chip, is made of magnesium alloy, with copper+aluminum channel blocks cool each of the two GeForce Kepler 104 GPU systems.
The GTX 690 has three dual-link DVI connectors and a mini-HDMI, similar to previous-generation GeForce GTX 590. Like the GTX 680, you can run triple-monitor 3DVision Surround setups right off a single card. There's one SLI connector, which lets you pair the card with another of its kind (only). The card uses a 10-phase VRM, which draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, yet the TDP of the card is rated to be just 300W (relatively, not much).
Last but not the least, is the answer to a looming question with how big the card really is. It occupies no more than two expansion slots, and is just as long as a GTX 590.
As for prices, NVIDIA informed us that apart from its US MSRP of US $999, Britons will be staring at a £829 price-tag, and continental Eurozone buyers at 829€ (excl. VAT). Expect a thorough performance review on May 03.
The top of the crate sure was catchy, which cautioned us of "weapons grade gaming power". Its side had a geekspeak print. "0b1010110010" is binary for "690" (0b is a binary prefix). The other two lines make no sense. Upon opening the crate, and a sheet of foam, there it is, something we'll be toying with for the better part of this week.
101 Comments on A Crate at TechPowerUp's Doorstep
Price $999 and no backplate wtf? :nutkick:
But good to see the nice glowing logo on top, me likey :)
internet trolls must now locate his premises so we can steal this card.
Also wonder if it actually a good overclocker as Nvidia was mentioning.
Also wondering if 7990 will be just as sexy
*mind explosion*
Lol my 7970 triple-corss doesnt look all that awesome anymore :nutkick:, thankfully I have a 4th card lying under the bench desk...time to water it up soon :rolleyes: ( well and swap one of the cards with low ASIC that pulls my system down, preventing healthy oc, can't seem to get stable past 1200/1600 at 1.225v ( 1.207 real))
P.S. I'm not sure that it's 999$...maybe it's an error ? maybe its .... 666$ >:D
Now let the pissn match begin :rockout:
Meh, either card is likely to be way too expensive for my peasant budget.
$800 dollar card I can absorb but a $grand! fuck that! excuse ma french :o
I wonder if all the review sites got this package or only techpower up
TPU should start video reviews/previews too IMO!
video reviews are a complete waste of time.
I do like videos to supplement text reviews.. not that I want videos to 'replace' text reviews..
previews like this or even tech demos can be an interesting supplement to articles..
that's my personal opinion anyways(i am not demanding it! :o)
Agree :rockout:
books, text message, email, online text only websites.
if you want to know the phone number for your local KFC, you dont want to sit through a 20 minute video looking for the number - you want it written plainly on your screen.
I eat.
I consume Chicken ahahahahahahahah crispy chicken :rockout:
I will find good review elsewhere if TPU start using Video Review..i hate watching 2 different color progress bar racing together and what they call those annoying little twisting circle in the center of video? seriously i love read and take my time to absorb the review and carefully examine the performance number.
My current triplefire fails misirably in Skyrim and New vegas, when according to afterburner the gpu 3 is just sleeping, and gpu's 1 and 2 are going all over the place from 0% usage ( on both) to 70% usage on both, each location seems to trigger something in the driver that begins this crazy cycle.
Offtopic: Oh and I get artifacts on the screen sometimes in skyrim, thought that might be the issue with the overclock -> but nope, same on default settings.
I saw similar problem in Heaven, when you get the dragon flight-around during sunset, break texture lines, both on OC and default. Strange problem is -> doesnt happen in 3dmark 2011 on any settings, doesnt happen in BF3/Metro 2033/ Crysis 2 on any settings. Granted I didn't do a clean install of windows after my nvidia cards....cause I'm lazzy, and that might be the case, but still annyoing.