ASUS Launches Its GeForce GTX 690 Dual-Chip Card

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 graphics card was launched a few days ago, which means that PC vendors and OEMs have had more than enough time to make their own announcements.

The company that is now launching the video card is ASUS. No modifications were made to the clock speeds, not that there was any need.

Dual-GPU cards are monstrously overpowered by default, so there isn't really any need for clock tweaking.

Of course, the same can be said about the GTX 680, or the 580, or really any upper-mainstream and high-end video controllers, but companies, and buyers, overclock them anyway.

That's neither here nor there though, so we'll go ahead and list the specs, identical to those of the reference adapter though they are.

First off, the two GK104 graphics processing units work at 915 MHz, but the GPU boost technology can push them to 1,019 MHz if needed. We're pretty sure it won't be needed, but GPU Boost is part of the Kepler architecture, so it's there regardless.

Secondly, 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM are present, with a clock of 6,008 MHz.

Thirdly, since there are two of those GPUs, the CUDA core count is 3,072 and the memory interface is 512 bits.

Other specs include OpenGL 4.2, advanced anti-aliasing (TXAA/FXAA), Adaptive Vertical Sync, the obvious DirectX 11 and SLI (two GTX 690 are basically quad-SLI setups on just two PCI Express 3.0/2/0 slots).

Finally, connectivity to one or more displays is accomplished through three dual-link DVI ports and a mini DisplayPort connector. HDMI lovers shouldn't worry though. A DVI to HDMI adapter comes bundled with the product.

ASUS will ship its GeForce GT 690 with its GPU Tweak and Driver software, plus a power cable. The price will be of $999 or more, and probably just as many Euro in Europe. Exchange rates say $999 is equal to 750 Euro, but we all know prices on the old continent don't often reflect them.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview