NVIDIA Unveils its Ultra High-End GeForce GTX 690

Last week, we posted about a teaser shot that NVIDIA put on its GeForce Facebook fan page with just enough detail to get the speculation train moving. One of the most popular guesses was that it was the upcoming dual-GPU GTX 690, and sure enough, that was right on the money. Due for release later this week, the GTX 690 is far from standard fare, and looks the part of “ultra high-end”.

There are some details that can’t be released about the card until later this week, but in a press release NVIDIA states that the card has 3,072 CUDA cores (double the GTX 680) and that it “delivers close to double” the performance of the same card. That’s to be expected, but what’s so great about this card is that it delivers massive performance for those who want to go the 3×1 route, and thanks to improvements made in the Kepler architecture, only one GPU is required.

But performance aside, there’s a lot more that makes the GTX 690 interesting. It features a trivalent chromium-plated aluminum frame (that’s a mouthful!), making it the most durable consumer card ever produced. The fan housing is comprised of thixomolded magnesium alloy which serves a dual purpose of improving heat dissipation and reducing overall noise.

Kicking things up even further, the GTX 690 comes equipped with a staggering 10-phase power solution and a thick 2oz copper layer. Moving forward we have dual vapor chambers, a nickel-plated finstack and center-mounted axial fan optimized for both airflow and noise.

A common downside of dual-GPU cards is that the noise is kicked up a notch when compared to an equal-level graphics dual card configuration. According to NVIDIA, for the first time ever that won’t be the case here, as the GTX 690 promises to be quieter and more power efficient than 2x GTX 680s.

In all regards, the GTX 690 is a high-end card, and as such, it also carries a high-end price. What could that be? How about $999? That’s right… a cool 1K for NVIDIA’s latest and greatest. Now, before the “that’s nuts!” comments start, one thing to bare in mind is that Intel has been selling its flagship processors for $999 for years, and generally speaking, they are only ~20% faster (if that) than the model below it which might cost half as much. Here, NVIDIA is literally doubling the performance of the GTX 680 and has wrapped it up into the coolest-looking chassis ever.

Let the drooling commence!