introduced at E3 via Alienware:

HUGE!

all that expensive crap, and there's the $20 generic ram DIMMs roflmao.

how does that thing not have a serious Flex Issue?!

Haha is that the Kepler GK-110? Beefy!

no its alienware's GTX690 2x GK104

Ah makes sense, thnx, the 690 is so damn long, I was surprised just how short the EVGA 670 SC is (shorter than my 560 and 5870 before it), would have thought the 690 would be normal size.

And then look what Gigabyte did with this 3 slot freak of a card. You can see the side of one of the fans at the top left, of which there are 4 more hiding under that cover.



Hit the link for a side shot.
Source
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/23085

lil fans moving lots of air = NOISE.

Yeah, a screamer for sure. Remember the little Delta high RPM fans from 10 years ago?

Just built a 680 based machine for a friend of a friend, and thought it's past time to start including a back bracket for the video. Good to see!

How big is this compared to a 6970?

the Alienware 690 is HUGE.

This reminds me the old full size VESA cards in the early 90s

they were mostly ram chips :P, i remember those.

Passive cooled 680 :

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3120426/colorful-igame-gtx-680-passive-heatsink-graphics-card

That seems more like a PR gimmick than anything else. If you get a 680 you can usualy buy watercooling. Plus, it won't destroy your motherboard, I mean that thing will just rip your pci slots if you keep your pc upright.

I don't even think you need special cooling, I have my 670 overclocked and the temps are 36F idle 75F max load... and that is with the EVGA reference style blower, the MSI Twin Frozr style cooler ones will likely drop 20F from these reference designs.

680s Run HOT,

only way they could Passively cool it was to put Heatpipes on both sides of the GPU and undervolt the hell out of it.

Maybe that was from some of the initial previews?

I haven't really noticed 680 users reporting overheating probs on the OCN Nvidia forum besides the occasional person who has poor ventilated case, and the confusion from the default fan profile in the drivers waiting to spin up the fan... even on EVGA forums there is nothing of note on overheating 680s...

Nvidia had enough experience with things that ran hot from their 480 and 580 ref cards, everyone who has upgraded from those to a 680 seems to report lower heat and power use.

Maybe it was a particular partner card you saw?

they arent overheating, they are just warmer than AMDs.

Ah yes true in general, but at least in this generation it doesn't seem to cause any problems, even the reference design fans are able to keep up with it, and I can only imagine the custom cards like the MSI Twin Frozr will be even better.