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18459
March 17th, 2013 10:00
Any Success installing a GTX 690 on an Aurora R3
I plan on upgrading my video card to a GTX-690 or Titan. I will be buying from either EVGA or ASUS. My R3 has a 875W PSU (I think, I will be sure before upgrading).
My question is has anyone updated their R3 with the 690 or Titan? For those that have, did you have any power issues or card size issues? Hopefully I hear some success stories, I am looking for a warm fuzzy from this Alienware Club Members.
I did read a lot about Alienwares that shipped with the 690, I will definitely be buying name brand from EVGA or ASUS (maybe MSI or Gigabyte, I am not partial to anyone specifically.)
Thanks for your input!!
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geoki
2 Posts
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March 21st, 2013 12:00
My aurora r3 came with the 590.. i put in the 690 using the same connections. Everything worked fine except for my pc randomly turning off. I spent a week trying to diagnose the issue. Turns out i just needed to upgrade the bios from a05 to a06. After i did that its been running like aa champ. Much cooler and power efficient compared to the 590. Im not sure what the bios firmware did bcus its still a 2011 firmware made before the 600 series, and the only change was voltage for a higher ram clock. But it worked and im happy with it. My 590 would get so hot i would have to play bf3 with the side panel off. I play with a 1080p 144hz monitor so 144 fps is my target. Borderlands 2 went from 70-100 fps to 120 to 200 fps. Bf3 went from 60-80 to 100-130. Unless ur running high resolutions, multiple monitors, or 3d/120hz monitor.... the 690 might be overkill. Hope this helps
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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March 21st, 2013 06:00
Eagle Mike,
Our 690 works on the R4 with the 875w power supply so I would guess that the 690 would work in the R3 with the same 875w power supply. Of course that is based on our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) 690 and not the retail video card.
Eagle Mike
6 Posts
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March 21st, 2013 22:00
Chris, thanks for the reply.
Eagle Mike
6 Posts
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March 21st, 2013 22:00
Geoki, thanks for the reply. I am pretty glad to hear a success story with the 690, with the Titan only an 1 inch or so greater than the 690, I feel confident with either purchase. And yes, either will be overkill; I am setting myself up with a 3.0 card as I start my slow progress to an updated rig.
geoki
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March 22nd, 2013 20:00
If i were you i would go for the 690. The titan would be my first choice only under 2 conditions. 1 if money wasnt an option. Dollar for dollar the gtx 690 out performs the titan, but a titan in sli would destroy anything, at a 2000 dollar cost.. And 2... if we had more space for air flow considering upgrading to an sli rig in the future, our auroras are so cramped with our micro atx motherboards they would be sandwiched together. Another thing to note is the 6gb vram in the titan. that would be awesome for high resolution multiple display setup. but if you are planning to run 3 1440p monitors in a surround setup... the 690 will choke... Antialiasing will eat up all your vram on those resoultions, the gtx 690 is sold as a 4gb card... in reality it is a x2 2gb card. Im not entirely clear how the difference matters but everyone online says that the vram isnt utilized the same way resulting in a choke on multi-monitor hi res gaming that will drop your fps like crazy.
Another thing based on all reviews ive read... they all state that gtx690 performance are basically the same on a 3.0 pci mother board compared to a 2.0. This has to do with the fact that the gtx690 chips are on the same pcb therefore using its own bridge to talk to eachother. dont take my word for it because its all new to me and ive been researching every option before dropping 1g on this card but that is what people are saying.
Tesla1856
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March 22nd, 2013 22:00
Right ... 2 GPUs but only the available bandwidth of one PCIe slot.
Titan or 690 ... I surely don't know but it's easy to Google and find the debates. Personally, I like single-slot-solutions (especially in the Aurora).
Desslock
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March 23rd, 2013 00:00
They are both single slot solutions - the Titan is a single GPU, while the 690 is a dual GPU card that takes a single slot.
They're both very nice cards - if you just want it for gaming, the 690 is definitely the better choice. But the Titan may be a better choice if you need non-gaming GPU intensive performance, plus there's definitely benefits to the single GPU, as dual GPU scaling isn't perfect and applications usually take a driver update or two to support it well.
Eagle Mike
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March 23rd, 2013 10:00
This is some great R3 specific information! I still haven't decided (or received the funding, my wife thinks this card costs 700). I am leaning towards the 690, my delay is the idea that by next year I will probably be on a full ATX MOBO with at least a mid tower. If I play my cards right (no pun intended), I may have the ability to be running two Titans in a mid tower by the end of next year. Or I should count my blessing and stick with just one 1k video card. I am only running 1 monitor (27inch 60hz BenQ) and may start running an additional 22 inch side monitor at most (which I will likely turn off during most gaming).
My rig: Alienware R3; i7-2600K, 256GB Samsung 840pro / 256GB Crucial M4, 16GB Corsair Vengeance, SB Recon PCI, Sapphire RADEON HD 7878 OC 2GB.