Legit Reviews - The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 did amazingly well when it came to power consumption, heat and noise. The noise levels are more than acceptable and when gaming it ran quieter and used less power that the GeForce GTX 680 SLI setup! If you want the very best performance for $999, you are best off going with two GeForce GTX 680 cards at $499 each. That said, the GTX 680 SLI setup uses more power and is louder than the GeForce GTX 690 that performs basically at the same level. The GeForce GTX 690 also will appeal to those with Small Form Factor (SFF) systems that can only fit one video card. For example Mini ITX motherboards only have one PCI Express x16 slot if you want the best, the GeForce GTX 690 is the only call to make.
According to NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 690 will be available in limited quantities from add-in card partners, including ASUS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Inno3D, MSI, Palit and Zotac starting today, with wider availability by May 7. Here in North American the main partners will be ASUS and EVGA, so those are the two brands to look for. NVIDIA expects to be able to stock these cards, but the are being produced in limited quantities, so expect them to be scarce at the beginning.
TechRadar - The Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 has been hailed by the green graphics giant as 'the best graphics card that's ever been made.'
That's quite a claim, but bandying around phrases like 'trivalent chromium plating' and 'injection moulded magnesium alloy' in relation to its design means this expensive ol' graphics card bears serious inspection.
Extremetech: Nvidia’s newest dual-GPU video card, the GeForce GTX 690, came out yesterday. And it’s amazing.
I’m not just throwing that word around. It’s based on the same GK104 GPU at the heart of Nvidia’s current-generation single-GPU leader, the GTX 680, and its performance stops just shy of what you’d get with two of those hooked up in SLI; Nvidia’s claims of this being the fastest video card in the world weren’t exaggerations.
GotGame: ASUS has today begun offering NVIDIA's sexy GTX 690, which is based off the 28nm Kepler architecture.
