EVGA 04G-P4-2690-KR GeForce GTX 690 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: This card by itself smashes every game I throw at it. I easily break 100FPS in most games, with only Planetside 2 (60-100fps) and Far Cry 3 (60-80fps) dragging me under, yet they still maintain a very playable rate at max settings.

Nvidia's gradually improving SLI profiles and drivers have made this card even better than when I first got it (rougly 6 months ago). The long list of SLI supported games also makes this card very worth it; Planetside 2, Battlefield 3 (soon BF4), World of Warcraft, TERA, TES: Skyrim and anything on the Source engine (HL2, L4D, Chivalry) will run absolutely amazing on this card. Games like SC2 and Diablo 3 can't make full use of this card's capabilities (to be fair WoW can't either, get with the program, BLIZZARD), so if those are your go-to games, look elsewhere, unless you love seeing 200+ FPS on a maxed out game.

Cons: Price point. Every game you can think of can be played with a lower cost card (GTX 680 comes to mind). Bear in mind that you will need to dump at least another $1000-$1500 into other high end hardware to make this card worth it. The price point is even less worth it if your favorite games do not support SLI (most do). But if you play a game that doesn't support SLI, you will not see a performance increase over a GTX 680, at least not one worth another $500-$600.

While these are all cons, I went into this purchase knowing this and it was very worth it, no eggs off for the cons you should be aware of going into a purchase.

Other Thoughts: Strangely, this card performs better with settings maxed out. I tried to squeeze out some frames by turning down/off certain graphics features, but my FPS either stayed the same or went down. So set all your games to MAX and let this baby purr, you won't regret it.

THIS CARD HAS TWO GPU'S!!!!
You must look at this as a purchase of TWO cards, and plan accordingly. This one-slot card is seen the same as two cards in separate slots. Due to SLI limitations you cannot put more than 4 GPUs into a system, so do NOT buy more than two cards for a single system. Also, due to scaling and generally poor support for 3 or 4-way SLI, you'd be better off buying 2 GTX Titans if you have your heart set on two physical cards (though a single GTX 690 will out-perform a single GTX Titan in nearly every game).

Pros: It's about the best card you can get for pure gaming. The debate is between this and Titan, in my tests it took 3 Titans to bring down 2 of these, so you do the math...

Cons: Price, but that's not really a con because it is a rock solid unit. Very nicely built and insanely fast. You get what you pay for.

Other Thoughts: I've always been an NVIDIA fan and this will help keep me there. Probably won't need to upgrade till 890 or even 990 series and I love that.

Pros: Responding to another comment.

I own the SC version of this card, which is identical save for slightly higher stock clock speeds. This card handles everything I throw at it across 3 1920x1080 monitors in surround. Granted, yes there are faster cards out there. And yes there are cheaper options out there for more performance as well...

But no other setup has given me the buttery smoothness of this single Titan. Even when frame rates drop to the 30s, it still appears to be running very smooth. The frame delivery is extraordinarily consistent, with very low latency.

Not to mention, I purchased this when the 600 series was all that was available. The 690 is faster, but in terms of single GPU cards, the Titan is on top for the 600 series, the 700 series, and if the trend continues it will fall in line between the 870 and 880 in the next generation.

This, to me, is extremely good value, as I desire only single cards due to past SLI issues I have had.

Cons: Price to gaming performance leaves something to be desired.

Other Thoughts: @GoneTomorrow.

I don't know where you got your information from, you are falling into the line of thinking of Radeon card owners. Team red requires displayport for a third display, this card does not.

You do NOT need to use the display port connection to run three a third monitor in surround or otherwise. I am currently typing this in a browser that has been fullscreened across three monitors.

I own the EVGA GTX Titan SC, and I assure you that you are incorrect.

From left to right, my monitors are connected as follows:

1: DVI.
2: DVI.
3: HDMI using an HDMI to DVI cable.

My displayport is unused entirely. I felt this necessary to point out, because this might cause people to forgo purchasing something like this based on that information which is incorrect.

I have no trouble running landscape surround, portrait surround (as I am currently) or all three displays individually with an extended desktop.

Pros: Card runs well in bf3 a single 690 does. Runs quiet and is fast. Takes up little space easy install. Will get u into some good fps with a single card.

Cons: Well, two 680s run better, two 7970s run better, two titans run better. Do not try to run two 690s in sli, constant driver issues and u actually will lose fps even with k boost locked in. Do not do it. I switched to two titans now I wish I just bought two 780s for half the price

Pros: SLI in one card; space saving for mATX and smaller; extremely high performance even at stock clocks; stock HSF actually cools well.

Cons: Multi-monitors annoying to setup (see below); not quite as fast as two GTX 680s in SLI or two 7970s in Xfire.

Other Thoughts: I got this card so that I could have a very fast single card for my mATX build. It performs that job amazingly. Doesn't need to be OC'd at all except for benchies (20k graphics score on 3DMark 2011). The one annoyance with this card is setting up multi-monitors. You'd think that you just plug them in and go, but you must use two DVI ports only on GPU 2 AND the DisplayPort must be used at the same time. I had to order a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable to achieve this. Took me ages to figure this out, and the instruction manual had no information. Not worth docking an egg though.

Pros: I love u NEWEGG and i love Nvidia 2 Run my games all at Max

Cons: NOTHING NADA RIEN!

Pros: If you're researching this card, you've likely already seen the benchmarks. It's fast, obviously.

Here's why I would recommend this card over 2 GTX 680's in SLI: First, heat and power consumption. If you don't mind a slightly higher power bill and slightly more heat being pushed out into your room, the 680's might be better for you. Second, the availability of PCI-e ports. You will likely need 5 available PCI-e slots to accommodate two 680's, assuming you leave 1 port worth of space between them for ventilation. If you're not concerned with future expansion (tri-SLI) or motherboard space is not an issue with your setup (such as watercooled setups) then the 680's may be a better option.

And finally, on the topic of future expansion, the 690 gives you the option of doubling your power by simply adding one more card. Three 680's will take up more space and produce far less performance than two 690's.

Two 680's in SLI will produce slightly better performance than one 690. So if none of the concerns above apply to you and you're simply after the most FPS, the 680's are a solid option. However, I like the fact that the 690 runs quieter, cooler, leaves more open space in my case for airflow, and consumes less power. Those positives, to me, are worth sacrificing a few frames per second here and there. You can make up your own mind for what best fits your situation.

Cons: -- For anyone using their GTX 690 for HDMI audio out:

There is an issue with the HDMI audio out that for whatever reason does not seem to like my hardware setup. I feed my audio/video straight from the GTX 690 into my home theater receiver for true 5.1/7.1 digital surround sound for the few games that support it.

However, when the card is under load, the audio pops, clicks, and hisses constantly. I've been through three different GTX 690 cards and all have the same problem. My other hardware is brand new, and I've tried every single troubleshooting test I can manage. After posting in countless forums, getting the generic "Your card must be defective, please replace it" reply from EVGA, and trying the card in other builds with other audio receivers (amps, TVs, etc), I've come to the conclusion that there is a design flaw somewhere in the HDMI audio out design that conflicts with certain hardware. It's not a latency issue, not a cable/wiring issue, and not a BIOS setting/PCI-e configuration issue.

I've seen forums with other users experiencing the same problems, with no solution ever having been found. It could perhaps be a driver issue that will one day be fixed with an update to the HD Audio driver, but until then, users with similar hardware as me (listed at the bottom of this review) who use their video card for digital surround sound to their theater receiver via HDMI may want to take caution if they do not have a dedicated sound card. My solution was to buy an ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 sound card (they're not easy to find these days) which is one of the few sound cars that has an HDMI output for 7.1 uncompressed audio.


-- For anyone hoping to someday game in 4k resolutions:

If you plan on buying a 4K TV in the future, be aware that 2GB of memory is not optimal for these resolutions. You'll be able to get by, but recent tests have shown that you WILL likely run out of VRAM in graphic-intensive games with only 2GB of memory per card. Although the 690 says "4GB", you are in reality limited to 2GB per card, which does not increase overall memory capacity even when run in SLI. This is more than enough for 1080p on a single monitor, so memory is only an issue if you plan on Ultra HD resolutions or multi-monitor play. The GTX Titan, by comparison, has 6GB of memory in just a single card, so make sure memory isn't an issue for you when buying this card.

Other Thoughts: With the release of the HD 7990, the debates against the GTX 690 will surely heat up. The 7990 will push a few more frames per second and will run as much as 10db quieter than the GTX 690 depending on the load. And it also has more memory, which will make it better suited to handle 4K resolutions. But it will consume a good bit more power, it will not have nVidia's level of driver support, and to be honest, it's a massive letdown in the looks department. Aesthetics shouldn't be a make-or-break factor when talking about top-end video cards, but in my personal opinion, the GTX 690 truly looks the part of an "enthusiast card", while the HD 7990 does not.

Also, there is always risk involved in buying a top-level video card. That risk comes with the knowledge that by this time next year, there will likely be another card out (possibly a dual-Titan card) that will make you regret spending $1,000 on a much slower card instead of just waiting for the latest and greatest. But that's just how technology works.


If you have the money, in my opinion, the GTX 690 is still the king of GPUs, all things considered. So if you're on the fence about Titan vs. 690 vs. HD 7990, I would say get what best fits your PC and situation. But my vote goes to the GTX 690 for sure.


My hardware:
Intel i7 3930
ASUS Rampage IV Formula
OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W PSU
Corsair Vengeance LP RAM

Pros: The heatsink is a beauty in performance, The quality is all metal and cannot be matched by any plastic shroud now days. That said, The quality of the PCB is superb aswell.
This card overclocked to 13% out of the box and I wont be upgrading for another decade. I use this mostly for gaming on a 2560X1400 screen and I play crysis 3 on ultra with not dips in the FPS. The problem comes from the artifacts during a video cutscene. Look at the cons

Cons: The major problem is that the artifacts come up on every cut scene I have down every problem solution trick but non seem to help. I called up EVGA support but all they said was to send them the card. I can't get any help with this problem as small as it is.

Other Thoughts: I would like to love this Video Card but the artifacts stop me from liking it. The build quality is on par and the Metalic Shroud and heatsink keep it very cooled. The quality control must have passed inspection on this batch.
I will have to return the card for repairs that will cost me nearly 100 dollars for insurance and shipping. I will do an update as soon as I get the card back in working order

Manufacturer Response:

Hello,

This is certainly not the behavior we expect from this product, please contact me directly at bbrunson@evga.com so i can work with you on this matter.

Thank you,
Brandon B

Pros: EVGA precision X allows for easy overclocking and monitoring, however liquid cooling would make it more viable for higher overclock speeds. Dual GPUs make this card a powerhouse for years to come.

Cons: single GPU ratings are not a match for the newer titan cards but when compared side by side from a cost analysis, you get 2 processors that can outperform the titan single processor in almost every aspect

Other Thoughts: Wish the card was not discontinued from EVGA. wanted to get the hydrocopper sig but, it was unavailable ended up using EK waterblocks reference design instead.

Pros: Fastest single slot card period. tested a Titan in the same gaming rig against this GTX 690 and this video card it was 10% overall faster than the Titan in all the games I tested. Glad I made the right choice ,I only game at 1920/1080P single monitor so v ram is not an issue for my gaming needs. Max out every single game out there. Cool running , great stock cooler.

Cons: none