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.
Unigine has released a new version of their popular DirectX 11 benchmarking software called Heaven, a piece of software that can put significant load on your hardware, no matter how powerful it is. The Heaven benchmark is one of the best looking benchmarks that can also take advantage of the latest graphics technologies such as tessellation and stereoscopic 3D support. The newest version of the benchmark builds on top of that and ads some new features among which is an enhanced 3D Vision support (already introduced a while ago) as well as an improved support for multi-monitor configurations including the introduction of support for the Nvidia 3D Vision Surround setups (multi-monitor stereoscopic 3D). Of course the Heaven benchmark also supports multiple other stereo 3D modes besides 3D Vision, it can already work in anaglyph 3D mode or Side by Side, even iZ3D monitors are supported. There is a free basic edition of Unigine’s Heaven benchmark that you can download and use and the commercial pro version of the software only adds some extras that might be of interest to professionals using Heaven for serious benchmarking. It is interesting to note that the Heaven DX11 Benchmark software is based on the company’s Unigine graphical engine, meaning that all that you see in the benchmark can be realized in an actual game with the game engine, including stereoscopic 3D support. And quite recently Unigine have also released a game of their own based on that engine that also supports stereo 3D, the game is called Oil Rush. If you haven’t seen it already you are welcome to try it out, it comes with a very good stereoscopic 3D support and although there are some minor things needed to be fixed the game still looks very nice.
Going for a multi-monitor setup for more immersive gaming environment can be an expensive and hard to realize task, especially if you want that setup to also support stereoscopic 3D. Building an Nvidia’s 3D Vision Surround setup with 120Hz 3D LCD monitors or an AMD Eyefinity 3D setup with passive 3D displays are some of the options, but that would require more powerful video cards and to have three 3D-capable monitors of the same model etc. And even when you are there you get some possible issues still facing you like no way of completely getting rid of the bezels of the displays, or a specific game not working in multi-monitor mode at all or at least having some issues. And although the end result would still be quite good and the extra immersion added by the wider field of view it may still not be what you would want to achieve if you are making some kind of a setup for a simulation game for example.
But there is an interesting alternative that hopefully will be available on the market later this year it is called TOOB being made by a company called Think Out Of Box. Essentially this is a special immersive dome type display that uses a single projector to offer the user a much more immersive curved display that covers better the whole peripheral vision. The display relies on a projector that is projecting the image on a curved mirror that reflects it on a curved screen creating the illusion of 3D-ness even when you are using a normal 2D projector and you can of course use a 3D-capable projector to add stereoscopic 3D support.
The clear advantage of this TOOB solution is that it does not have any specific requirements for the image source – it can be a PC, DVD or Blu-ray player, game console even TV channel and it can work with a 2D or 3D source, you just need to get a 3D-capable projector to use it with stereo 3D content. There is no special software required in order to get the whole extra immersive effect, so no compatibility issues or games not willing to work correctly, although especially for games there are some that might benefit more from this type of display than others, like all types of simulators for example. The whole curved dome type display without a projector should cost about 1500 USD and bundled with an Optoma projector (official partners of Think Out Of Box for TOOB and projector bundles) the price should be about 2000 USD. The good thing is that it is fully compatible with Nvidia’s 3D Vision if your projector is a 3D Vision-ready one, or with AMD HD3D technology and PS3 consoles in 3D if you happen to get a projector with HDMI 1.4 support (or an extra adapter that adds it). I’m eager to see one of these TOOB domes in action and try to play some games on it when it comes out on the market as it appears to be a really good and affordable solution for a more immersive curved display for home use, and apparently not only for gaming, but for movie watching as well… like your own private small scale IMAX dome theater at home.
