Geforce 690 or stick with AMD 6990?

[Darrin]

I currently own a Sapphire 6990 4MB video card which I bought a year ago. I've usually always prefered Nvidia, but thought I'd give an AMD a try again. It's been a decent video card and plays most games. I still hate their video drivers in comparison to Nvidia and their cards tend to run hot and require more power. Anyways, I've been noticing with some of the newer games like Guild Wars 2 and Planetside 2 (beta) it's having a harder time with. In fact both games I play on a single monitor because the framerate is so bad if I go multi-monitor (3). Framerates dip up and down and sometimes I get stuttering. Framerate is the most important factor for me; graphics 2nd.

I've been thinking of going back to Nvidia, and have been looking at the Geforce 690 or 2 Geforce 680's. My question is, will I see a difference? Is it worth the money or will it only be a negligible difference? Does Nvidia seem to be overall better at multi monitor gaming than AMD currently? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


System:

I run 3 27" LED monitors in landscape, 8 gigs of DDR3, and an Intel i5 2500K running at 4.0 ghz. ASRock Fatality motherboard, 1000 watt power supply, Coolermaster HAF full tower case.

[Delphium]

Using an Nvidia GTX690 or pair of 680's would certainly make a difference, the added bonus is that the new 600 series cards can run 3 monitors form a single card now.
We recently conducted a review on the GTX670 https://www.wsgf.org/article/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review and the performance of this card alone is staggering, very impressive results from what is the mid range card!

The 6990 performs quicker than a single 7970 reference edition or a single gtx670, however is more on par with the 7970 GHz Edition or the GTX680.

You may also be interested in tom's gpu hierarchy to see how cards stack up in a rough comparison.

[Darrin]

When it comes to price point, AMD is better vs Nvidia. Would 2 7970's ($800) be comparable to Geforce 690 ($1,000)?

[Wijkert]

When it comes to price point, AMD is better vs Nvidia. Would 2 7970's ($800) be comparable to Geforce 690 ($1,000)?

I would give Nvidia the edge when it comes to bang for your bug cards, not AMD. Although with AMD lowering there prices, it is very close. If you wanna use two gpu's go with Nvidia since they have less microstuttering problems (still some though). At what res are you playing games?

[Darrin]

I run at 5872x1080. I'm pretty convinced with Geforce at this point based on all the reviews I've read, I just don't know which card or size. I hear conflicting reports about VRAM size. Some say you should go with 4GB cards, some say 2GB cards are plenty. So I'm at a crossroads as to which one I should purchase.

[miahallen]

People reccommending 2GB cards as "plenty" are talking about current gaming....people reccommending 4GB models are planning for the future ;)

[Wijkert]

People reccommending 2GB cards as "plenty" are talking about current gaming....people reccommending 4GB models are planning for the future ;)

Since planning for the future (aka future proofing) isn't really possible when it comes to computer hardware, I would listen to the people that are recommending 2Gb models... ;)

[Cinnabuns]

I'd recommend 2x 680's over a dual GPU card either with ATi or Nvidia.

Reason being two fold.

1) Resale. The market for 680 or similar ATi card in a year or three will be much better than the market for dual GPU card.

I tried selling my GTX295 a year and a half ago and not only is it obsolete, the best offer I got on it was like $170 bucks. Paid $760 for it.

If I'd bought 2x 285's selling each of those separately would have brought more money and would have been much easier. I still have that $700 card sitting in a box, yay.

2) When you upgrade you can also take one of your single GPU cards and repurpose it as a physX card or in another PC/home media center without dealing with huge power requirements.

Just my 2 cents.