It seems that there is a strange misconception going on around that since passive 3D monitors use only half of the vertical resolution for displaying the frame for each eye you are supposed to get higher fps in a game. But this is far from the truth, because even though each frame for each eye displayed with a resolution of 1920×540 on a passive 3D display is actually still rendered in 1920×1080 resolution and then the extra lines are being discarded. As a result you have the same performance requirements for rendering the stereoscopic 3D image on either passive 3D or active 3D monitor, even though you are getting a bit lower resolution on the passive 3D solutions when viewing the result.
Rendering at Full HD resolution on passive 3D solution allows you for example to save stereoscopic 3D screenshots or 3D video from a game with full resolution, though this might not work on all stereoscopic 3D solutions. It also allows you to get better quality of the image without having to resort to very performance taxing solutions for anti-aliasing as lowering the vertical resolution can lead to more jagged edges. Using the extra visual information that has already been rendered can help process the stereoscopic 3D image that is going to be displayed, so that it will look better, even though the extra vertical lines from each frame are still being discarded. That does not help much when you have very small details or small text displayed using passive 3D setup, but still can help improve the overall visual quality without much of a performance loss. In the end you can expect to get pretty much the same number of FPS on the same system running either a passive 3D display or an active 3D solution for gaming in stereoscopic 3D mode. Actually with passive you can be getting a bit less fps due to the extra processing of the images before they are being displayed on the screen, but the difference is very small, so you will hardly notice it.
Blades of Time is a new hack and slash type action-adventure game developed by Gaijin Entertainment, the same company that has made the game X-Blades, and the two games actually share way too many similarities, although they are not really related officially in the form of a sequel/prequel. Considering how good X-Blades looks in stereoscopic 3D mode with 3D Vision I was eager to see will Blades of Time also have a good stereo 3D compatibility. The game offers detailed environments, a lot of effects and fast action which makes it a great candidate for a nice experience in stereoscopic 3D mode, and even though it has not be designed to be a stereo 3D title it actually does quite Ok.
Blades of Time does not yet have a 3D Vision profile, but even without one the default settings work Ok, you may do a tiny bit of convergence adjustment as a fine tuning and then you can start pushing the depth really high. With that said though, there are some issues in stereo 3D mode that you should be aware of, like the problem with the shadows not properly rendered in S3D, but you can disable them from the Options menu. The other problematic thing is related to the text being displayed on the screen when in stereo 3D mode, the same goes for some other HUD elements as well as the crosshair when shooting with a gun. Other than that, the item icons also render in 2D, but that s a minor thing. If you plan to push for the maximum depth for the normal more distant view you may have to be aware that when using the compass and in other closeup modes you may have trouble in stereo 3D mode, but even with moderate depth level the things look quite well when rendered in stereoscopic 3D mode. So Blades of Time might not be the greatest title of all time or a very special game, but it could be a fun thing to play for a while and waste some time, and doing it in stereoscopic 3D mode makes it even better. Hopefully the developer of the game will pay some attention to the stereoscopic 3D gamers and release an update addressing the issues in S3D mode and meanwhile there is a demo of the game that you can download and try before deciding if you want to get the full game or not…
Nvidia has been teasing us for a while now about going to introduce something new and they did it – the new GeForce GTX 690 dual-GPU graphics card, based on the new Kepler architecture. I could easily say that the GTX 690 is a worthy successor to the GTX 590 from last year, but since the 590 had some issues at first, I better say that the GTX 690 is more like the GTX 590 done right – much better cooling, less power and heat, and a lot more performance. But let us look at the specs first, before continuing talking about the new Dual-GPU card…
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 Specifications:
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 690 4GB
Graphics Processing Clusters: 8
Streaming Multiprocessors: 16 -16
CUDA Cores: 3072 +2048
Texture Units: 256 +128
ROP Units: 64 -32
Graphics Clock: 915 MHz (1019 Boost) +308
Memory Clock (Data rate): 6008 MHz +2594
Total Video Memory: 4096MB GDDR5 +1024
Memory Interface: 512‐bit +128
Total Memory Bandwidth: 192 GB/s per GPU+32
Fabrication Process: 28 nm +12
Transistor Count: 7 Billion total +1
Connectors: 3x Dual‐Link DVI, 1x Mini-DisplayPort 1.2
Form Factor: Dual Slot
Power Connectors: 2x 8‐pin PCI-E Power
Recommended Power Supply: 600 Watts
Thermal Design Power (TDP): 300 Watts -65
* The superscript numbers in green and red show the change as compared to the specs of GTX 590.
So, looking at the specs it is pretty much two GTX 680 GPUs on a single card, though the operating frequencies of the GPU (the normal and the boost one) are lower than on the GTX 680, but that is something needed in order to fit in the 300W TDP. And the GTX 690 should is able to handle quite a bit of overclocking like the GTX 680, so you should be easily able to compensate the difference in frequencies. So if you still haven’t upgraded to GTX 680, you might want to consider going for a single GTX 690 instead of two GTX 680s in SLI, or why not even two 690s in Quad SLI.
The question here however is what would you need a GTX 690 for when talking about stereoscopic 3D gameplay, clearly if you plan to play games in a triple display setup using 3D Vision Surround going for a GeForce GTX 690 (or two GTX 680 for that matter) is a must, even though a single GTX 680 is capable of supporting a 3D vision Surround. For a surround setup you not only need the outputs, but also the performance to back the tripled resolution as compared to using a single 3D display, and while a single GTX 680 can do a very decent job, playing at maximum detail levels on more demanding games would be more comfortable with two cards or the new Dual-GPU solution. The GeForce GTX 690 is also a great choice for everyone thinking about playing on 2D displays with higher resolutions such as 2560×1600 with maxed out graphics settings.
The recommended end user price of the GeForce GTX 690 is $999 USD, and the first cards are expected to be available starting May 3rd in limited quantities, with more coming up on May 7th, so just a few more days left. And considering the price is pretty much the same as of two GTX 680 cards, the GTX 690 could indeed be a good alternative, but lets see some in-depth reviews of the card first before making the final decision as it has only been just announced from Nvidia and there are no reviews available yet.
