Final thoughts and rating

Let's cut right to the chase, the GeForce GTX 690 4GB graphics card is aimed at a small band of computer users identified as ultra-enthusiasts. These people care about having the shiniest of technology and possess the inclination and ability to pay for it.

GTX 690 is the world's fastest graphics card... by some distance. It manhandles the previous-generation GTX 590 and benchmarks at a level that's consistent with two premium GeForce GTX 680s running in SLI. Such is its visceral power that one really needs to pair it with either a 30in, 2,560x1,600-resolution monitor or three screens driven by NVIDIA's (3D) Vision Surround technology. Best of all, it can do all this from the card's trio of DVI outputs.

Oftentimes the search for ultimate GPU power is manifested in a card that's hot and noisy. GeForce GTX 690 is neither; it's relatively quiet and cool at all times. Even when pushed with a healthy dollop of overclocking the GTX 690's cooling does an admirable job of keeping noise, temperatures and power in check, and you can't ask for much more than that when talking about the world's fastest gaming card.

We could lament the card's £825 price tag, potential foibles in running SLI for lesser-known titles, and lack of amazing-looking games that tax the GTX 690's brute strength. We could do that and more, folks, but that would be missing the point. And that point is to have the best graphics card around, something which NVIDIA clearly has with the GeForce GTX 690. Heck, this single-card monster renders NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 680 SLI obsolete. AMD, over to you.

The Good

Ridiculously fast
Admirable noise, temps and power-draw stats
Supremely well-built
Enables four-GPU rendering from two cards

The Bad

Well, there's not much change from a grand

HEXUS Rating

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GPU

HEXUS Awards

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GPU

HEXUS Where2Buy

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HEXUS Right2Reply

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Lol at Oppenheimer reference.

I don't have enough arms and legs to give up to pay for one of those. Seriously £850- £900?

They really take us for a bunch of mugs, although I would have been one of them if I was super rich!!

£825?? This is the most expensive reference consumer graphics card made in the last decade,outside of thise E-PEEN edition cards which at least were rare(at least these were low production run jobs).

Wait until next year - £1000 cards will be acceptable. I like how the acceptable level of pricing graphics cards,is now increasing(way past inflation) every year.

What I find funny,if you go back a few years,well actually,2009, even £300 cards were considered overpriced.

I find it surprising how much less power it uses than two cards in SLI - performance is very close too, although you could call it overkill at 1080P! Probably why it is close to the cost of two seperate cards.

CAT-THE-FIFTH
£825?? This is the most expensive reference consumer graphics card made in the last decade,outside of thise E-PEEN edition cards which at least were rare(at least these were low production run jobs).

Wait until next year - £1000 cards will be acceptable. I like how the acceptable level of pricing graphics cards,is now increasing(way past inflation) every year.

What I find funny,if you go back a few years,well actually,2009, even £300 cards were considered overpriced.

The Guru3D article says these are a limited run.