GTX 680 SLI vs GTX 690 vs GTX 670 FTW SLI

Ahh this debate again. Seems people cant find the answer, but here it is.

The fact of the matter is that two 680s are faster than one 690. This is true for several reasons.

The most prominant being the different 680 models. You can buy two 4gb Vram 680s. That doubles the vram of the 690 right there. But lets say you dont have the money to do that.

Then you are stuck with going with two 2gb 680s. But they are still faster.

This is true based on two solid facts.

1. The GTX 690 is two 680s smushed together on one PCIe slot. This means you are trying to feed double the amount of information through one slot. Its logical thinking that two cards spread out over two slots will be faster than two cards on one slot.

2. You can overclock the two 680s to way past their factory clock. This means you are overclocking two 680s. But on the 690 you are bottlecapped on how much you can overclock. This means that the two 680s rain supreme again.

How much faster are two 2gb 680s? only about 2-3 percent. Not much, but they are the victors.

Not only that, but the gtx 690 has massive cooling issues. Instead of the heat blowing out the back of the case like a 670/80 does. it blows in the case. Yup, all the extra heat trapped in your case. GTX 680 is the clear winner.

The GTX 680 (base model) is priced at 500 USD

The GTX 690 is priced at 1050 USD.
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If you want the best bang for your buck SLI the GTX 670 FTW edition. Dont get all scared because its a 670.

The 670 FTW edition is actually a 670 at the clocks of a 680, with the same amount of vram, the same cooling system. You are only loosing 200 CUDA cores.

So the question then becomes how much slower are 2 gtx 670 FTWs compared to two gtx 680s?

about 2-5 percent. Yup 2-5 percent. And 200 dollars cheaper if you are sli-ing two FTWs instead of two 680s.

So that means that two 670 FTWs are almost the same as a gtx 690. They are about 6-9 percent slower (without overclock) so for 2 hundred dollars less you get minimal performace drop.

I have a gtx 670 ftw in my case now. And my gosh its amazing. 70 FPS on battlefield 3 will all settings to ultra.

Beware: the gtx 670 FTW is no normal 670. It has the same dimensions as a 680. Just beware of that before you put it in a small case and find out it doesnt fit. This is because the gtx 670 FTW has the cooling of a 680. Making it run very cool.

The gtx 670 FTW comes factory overclocked to the specs of a gtx 680. BUT its memory clock is actually HIGHER than a 680. So your 2gb 670 FTW will have better memory than a base 2gb 680.

I call the FTW the GTX 675. yes this is what I refer to it in conversation. Because it is a 680, just with 200 less cuda cores, and a higher memory clock. Hence the name: GTX 675.

The GTX 670 FTW is priced at 407 USD.

The GTX 670 FTW also has the best name of a GPU out there.
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Heres a link to gtx 690s: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600315498%20600328254&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce%20GTX%20690

Heres a link to gtx 680s: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600315498%20600311819&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce%20GTX%20680

Heres a link to the GTX 670 FTW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787