I would.  They bench about the same, cost the same....the 690 is cooler and more energy efficient.  And you have space for other cards on the PCIe slots.

IMO, the 690 is slightly underclocked. Id do 680s in SLI unless i was going to do like quad GPUS, then i would do 690s. 

Having had both the 3960x and now the 3930k on that board you are going to own I am here to tell you there was 0 difference in my OC.  They both capped out at 5.0 GHZ.  Save the 600 bucks and either get three screens, or heck, even another 680 :)  I'ts less useless then the 3960x :)

Delirious


I would.  They bench about the same, cost the same....the 690 is cooler and more energy efficient.  And you have space for other cards on the PCIe slots.

correct me if Im wrong, but would a single card with two gpu's not outperform a sli setup of the same "class" more Vram = more awesomeness?

gutcheck


Having had both the 3960x and now the 3930k on that board you are going to own I am here to tell you there was 0 difference in my OC.  They both capped out at 5.0 GHZ.  Save the 600 bucks and either get three screens, or heck, even another 680 :)  I'ts less useless then the 3960x :)

Must say im getting more and more convinced about it, that should actually make it possible for a tri sli 680, but is there any advantage of that? or should you go with the quad sli 

JuleKo

Delirious


I would.  They bench about the same, cost the same....the 690 is cooler and more energy efficient.  And you have space for other cards on the PCIe slots.

correct me if Im wrong, but would a single card with two gpu's not outperform a sli setup of the same "class" more Vram = more awesomeness?

 
What cards do you have now?  Are you talking about purchasing another 680 to SLI?  If so, I would do that.  If you dont have a 680, then 690 and the difference in performance is negligible.  Also think resale value.  People will pay for a card like the 690 that is a limited edition and probably more than you would get form two 680s down the line.   The 690 has 4 gb VRAM.  The 680s, whatever you get, 2 gb or 4 gb VRAm will be only 2 GB or 4 Gb in SLI.  VRAM is not cumulative when you SLI

The Vram benefit would be dependent on if the application would need it.

Delirious

JuleKo

Delirious


I would.  They bench about the same, cost the same....the 690 is cooler and more energy efficient.  And you have space for other cards on the PCIe slots.

correct me if Im wrong, but would a single card with two gpu's not outperform a sli setup of the same "class" more Vram = more awesomeness?

What cards do you have now?  Are you talking about purchasing another 680 to SLI?  If so, I would do that.  If you dont have a 680, then 690 and the difference in performance is negligible.  Also think resale value.  People will pay for a card like the 690 that is a limited edition and probably more than you would get form two 680s down the line.   The 690 has 4 gb VRAM.  The 680s, whatever you get, 2 gb or 4 gb VRAm will be only 2 GB or 4 Gb in SLI.  VRAM is not cumulative when you SLI

 
Sold all my stuff, so actually thinking in a 3x sli 680, the money fits, and its 3000 dkk for a quad sli setup. 
 
so gonna run with the same as i already posted and then go with a 3x 680 or a 690 and wait a month and maybe get another.

The 690 only has 2 GB VRAM effectively.
 
It is marketed as having 4 GB VRAM as it is essentially 2 GPUs that both have 2 GBs of VRAM, combined together results with 4 GBs of VRAM. Equivalent of taking two GTX 680 2 GBs with SLI and saying that they have 4 GBs of VRAM. They both only yield 2 GBs of usable VRAM in SLI.

tichinde925


The 690 only has 2 GB VRAM effectively.

It is marketed as having 4 GB VRAM as it is essentially 2 GPUs that both have 2 GBs of VRAM, combined together results with 4 GBs of VRAM. Equivalent of taking two GTX 680 2 GBs with SLI and saying that they have 4 GBs of VRAM. They both only yield 2 GBs of usable VRAM in SLI.

True and here is what anandtech says about 2 gb of VRAM
 
"Wrapping things up, there is one question left I feel like we still don’t have a good answer to: how much RAM a $999 card should have. NVIDIA went with a true equal for the GTX 680 SLI, right down to the 2GB of VRAM per GPU. Looking back at what happened to the Radeon HD 5970 and its 1GB of VRAM per GPU – we can’t even run our 5760x1200 benchmarks on it, let alone a couple of 2560x1600 benchmarks – I’m left uneasy. None of our benchmarks today seem to require more than 2GB of VRAM, but that much VRAM has been common in high-end cards since late 2010; the day will come when 2GB isn’t enough, and I'm left to wonder when. A GTX 690 with 4GB of VRAM per GPU would be practically future-proof, but with 2GB of VRAM NVIDIA is going to be cutting it close."
 
I guess you will have to decide how much vram you need.  I run one 30 inch monitor and this is enough for that.  If you run 3 screens,  I'd say look for a 4 gb card and go with it.

I got a great offer on 3 evga gtx 680, so the im going all in with tri sli :-) if im lucky then i could get 3 4gb, elae im "just" going with the normal 2 gb signature with backplate :-)

I am happy with my Force GT, never bench marked it or anything but I always have good luck with corsair so I stuck with them.
The Samsung review does look enticing though, if I was doing a build now I would have a tough time deciding haha