AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise

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There are no games out to take advantage of even previous gen hardware, AMD and Nvidia are better of convincing DEVS to actually make games for the PC instead of the current crap console ports we get.

I see no further reason to buy any further hardware until there is software to actually use this stuff.
 
Two of these things liquid cooled would monster everything. This is the Ferrari, Lambo, Aston Martin, Zonda of video cards. It's supposed to be bonkers. If you're buying one of these then you won't hesitate to use alternate cooling or an insanely insulated case.
 
Now if this is the same price as the GTX 580 then this would definatly be a good a buy. Since 2 6950's are nearly $250 anyways. 2 6950's flashed to 6970. Hopefully they make a little brother version of this just like they did with the 4850x2
 
I think Chris summed it up pretty nicely. We now have a clear cut case at least until nvidias response, which frankly should suffer more or less from the same problems as the 6990.

Go for 6970 CF or 570 SLi as opposed to 6990 that is louder, hotter, more expensive and last but not least, not as fast as its dual-card opposition. It never wins in any of these categories, EXCEPT the fact that you don't have to worry about CF motherboards and dual-card configs etc.

It would also seem, from the numbers in the article, that a CF 6990 setup is a huge waste of cash seeing as it doesn't give that much performance boost over the single card setup.

Finally I would just like to as Chris if he can put in the numbers for the 480 SLi (same tier as 6970 and 570) just to compare performance/noise/heat/price ratios.
 
For the around same performance for gaming SLI GTX570 is a better option ! Lol a 700$ video card for that noise and so so performance, i hope amd driver update will help on that otherwise the gtx590 will beat the f out of it.
 
No matter how good this card is it will have issues Ati/Amds drivers are garbage just like they were when Ati was on there own. Nvidias drivers are 1000s times better.
 
Maybe now we can quit all the Fermi heat jokes? For crying out loud, everyone was making fun of the gtx590 for having possible heat issues, look at this card...
 
[citation][nom]4745454b[/nom]Meh. To much for what it is. The only thing it does better then two 6970s is in power. (if one 6970 is 250W and this is 375W, then it uses less power then 2x6970.) But I agree that you're better off with a CF setup. Like the GTX480 and possibly the GTX580, its simply to much for what you pay for.Edit: I should say its either to much or to little and always in the wrong way for what you pay for. I also dislike the the 375W TDP. We have specs/rules for a reason.[/citation]

If he reviewed the following items he would have said:

Bugatti Veyron Review: This Car Makes (Too Much) Noise
SATURN V Rocket Review: Ugly Paint Job


 
Finally ... 2 of something that can play Crysis at 60FPS.

6990 CF ... expensive ... given you will need at least a 1.2KW Psu once you stick the rest of the fruit into the box Chris !

Soon ... maybe ... one card will conquer Crysis !!

On that day the faithful will rejoice ... tubular bells will be heard round the net ... god may even make a short appearance.

:)
 
[citation][nom]mosox[/nom]If he reviewed the following items he would have said:Bugatti Veyron Review: This Car Makes (Too Much) NoiseSATURN V Rocket Review: Ugly Paint Job[/citation]

I love the sound of a Veyron. That doesn't mean I want to hear it in my office all day long.
 
[citation][nom]evga_fan[/nom]I think Chris summed it up pretty nicely. We now have a clear cut case at least until nvidias response, which frankly should suffer more or less from the same problems as the 6990.Go for 6970 CF or 570 SLi as opposed to 6990 that is louder, hotter, more expensive and last but not least, not as fast as its dual-card opposition. It never wins in any of these categories, EXCEPT the fact that you don't have to worry about CF motherboards and dual-card configs etc.It would also seem, from the numbers in the article, that a CF 6990 setup is a huge waste of cash seeing as it doesn't give that much performance boost over the single card setup.Finally I would just like to as Chris if he can put in the numbers for the 480 SLi (same tier as 6970 and 570) just to compare performance/noise/heat/price ratios.[/citation]

Hi evga_fan,
I didn't have time to run 480 SLI figures, but assume they'd be very close to the 570s. Noise would be another matter entirely. That configuration is notorious for howling in SLI mode.

As for CrossFire, I think it's pretty safe to say that really isn't a problem any more. NV is out of the chipset game, and every AMD/Intel-based board I've had through for years has been CrossFire-capable. SLI licensing has been more spotty, I'd say.
 
If AMD can release a card outside of the PCIe spec, then why can't someone develop a case out of the ATX spec? 😛

It's a monster, and if nVidia wants to compete, they can't really do it with 2x580s on a single PCB. 2x570 at the most. I can't see how they can go any further with a) Fermi's power draw, even with GT110, and b) this current manufacturing process.

2x560 would be a very interesting dual GPU proposition.
 
WTF, did antialiasing outperform no antialiasing on quadXfirer on farcry 2?!?! This thing is insane. Dont really care though abot noise, that what good old 5.1 headphones are for. Wont buy one though, Im as broke as Ive ever been...
 
just out of curiosity, can you add older games to this list? i cant be the only person who plays battle field bc2 and kotor, or american mcgee alice.

it would be at the very least interesting to see the results, though to get to the higher resolutions i believe you need 3rd party patches for the game.
 
Alidan,

BF BC2 is in the list of tested games. WoW is pretty old too now these days :) Don't have the other ones, but any other specific requests?
 
When some of the cards come out with a better revised cooling system/profile, I'm sure this will make it into people's dual card/quad crossfire setups and will become the standard... until the GeForce card comes out, too.
 
I feel like this is a Viper.
Your kinda like, Dodge, you know you're only gonna be able to sell 12 of these right?
But everytime I see one on the street I'm like: Yowza!
 
Nearly a year ago, I watched Nvidia introduce the GTX 480 at PAX East, a Fermi card that was too loud, ran too hot, and sucked up too much power.

Fast forward nearly 12 months, and we now have AMD making the SAME MISTAKE.

Chris is right -- it sure seems like both AMD and Nvidia are focusing on the speed crown, and if it means rushing out flawed, overpriced GPUs that will be obsolete within months? So be it...
 
I hope that toms will come back and reviews a non-reference card of this after the drivers have a chance to mature and vendors get to add their better solutions.
 
Conclusion based on comparing power drawn and noise of a dual gpu card against current generation single GPU's. Due to testing the card against 2x570's should there have been power and noise test of these to compare? With SLI 2 480's or 580's should top power drawn and noise chart. The 2x570's tho could be a good battle for first or worst.

I really liked the addition of the quad GPU test. I would like to see some 3 monitor benchmark tests please. The 6990 against 2x 570's with 3 monitors is the setup most will run with these cards.
 
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