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

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[citation][nom]Bigmac80[/nom]Pretty fast i wonder if this will be cheaper then 2 GTX 570's or 2 6950's?But omg this thing is freakin loud. What's the point of having a quite system now with Noctua fans[/citation]

The noise can delt with by water cooling...
 
Not saying I'm any different...

It's just funny how once a person invest in something "IT'S THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!!"

I love my girlfriend for instance, she's the best. I'll tell that to anybody and everybody; but if Megan Fox walks in she's getting the booot!!

That being said, anyone who LOVES there GTX580 or 6970, that's great, but this card is the young Megan Fox... and she's only going to get "hotter"...hahaha
 
Also, I don't know about anybody else, but I don't play games or movies with my speakers turned off or even down.

The charts speak for themselves, even with crap early drivers..

The new champ is here. Kneel Before ZOD!!
 
[citation][nom]tacoslave[/nom]Its hot, sucks alot of power, and costs a ton. But i still want one. Badly[/citation]

Unless you're a complete AMD fanboi to the point where you'd buy it just because its AMD, you should wait until the nvidia 590 comes out.
 
Why dont they just make this card 3 slots wide. Surely, the increase in volume inside the chamber will improve cooling; thus, improve noise levels as well.
 
TSMC you are killing two of your customers, GET PAST THE 40nm!

AMD & Nvidia great job working on large dies.
Why didnt they even go out side their company for a better cooler? If I would get this card I would deff go water cooled, with a huge radiator. But considering I just bought a 6990, and a high end i7 I could afford a water cooled system.
 
If the video cards are being limited by the CPUs in WoW, or the CPU is still the limit for other reasons, of course then more graphics power won't help.
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It's a combination of 2 things fOr WoW really. The first is that, yes, it is limited by the CPU. Cores have clock rate limits before it becomes unfeasible to get better. We're near it. Second is that wow is coded to use only 2 cores. So it woulnt matter if you had 800 cores, wow wouldn't use it.

The graphics in that game are bad, it's. 6 year old game. The only thing that requires a lot of graphics is shadows, an that's because there's a lot of people and they coded the shadows poorly.
 
Called the heat and power consumption! Totally predictable, check the comments on the article about AMD's CEO holding the card next to his face. And to those who doubted me, shame on you.

GTX 590 time!
 
Boy this sounds like a beast alright, and if you want it go for it! That is why there are 1000w+ power supplies and 12cm fans! I've worked with computer parts distributors for over 10 years and seen stuff come and go. I hope AMD get its driver issues fixed. That has always been their Achilles heal. Most of the dealers I sell to, 80%+ prefer nVidia, because they just work. Personally I don't care which customers buy just as long as they buy, lol. I think if AMD can get good drivers out consistently that will go a long way of change the minds of resellers and professionals out there.
 
Man i bet facbook would look so freaking nice on that. Gmail should run better too!
 
The bad news is a fan in the center means blowing half of your exhaust out the I/O bracket, where you want it to go, and the other half back into your chassis, where you decidedly don’t want it to go (especially when you’re talking about half of the heat from the hottest graphics card ever manufactured). Depending on your build, a mid-mounted fan can be a deal-breaker; it’ll almost assuredly cause complications in a dual-card configuration. But AMD doesn’t provide any guidance whatsoever regarding chassis requirements for this board.
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it's a top of the line card, only people with money to throw around are going to buy it. how many people with that kind of money to throw around build their own computers? from my experience, none, they let the pros build it. this card is not meant for the average user or average chasis at it's price. most cases have 1-2 front panel fans perfect for venting out the front of the case and those cases tend to have 1-2 side panel fans perfect for intake for cpu and graphics cards with mid mount fans.
but people spending this much money usually go with liquid cooling negating pretty much every noise and heat complaint.
I can only see two reasons that anyone would buy a Radeon HD 6990, given the other options currently available.
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how about 30"+ monitors ? even dual 30"+ monitors ?
10-15 27"+ monitors is the thing movie editors dream about.

In order to keep the card at 90 degrees or less, the fan then speeds up to 3600 RPM, or what I call Charlie Sheen F-18 mode.
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loved that movie as well as part deux. every 2&1/2 men episode i wait for john cryer (jim 'the wash out' pfaffenbach)to revive lines from his stint as the wise crackin air controller and kowalski (kristy swanson)is a voice talent for one of the female scientists in crysis.
excellent reference chris!
 
Hey f-14,

Thanks for the comments!

This is Tom's, man--the site is dominated by DiYers. Unfortunately, even the guys willing to buy this card in a pre-built machine are gonna run into trouble. Falcon Northwest will sell you one 6990, but they won't sell you two. I spent an hour on the phone with Kelt making sure our noise numbers checked out, and he's simply not going to offer 6990s in quad-CrossFire because of how badly they work in his enclosures. Even with a single card, this thing is loud. The best way to go is still going to be a pair of 6970s--no problems there with full rear-exhaust!

6970s will do dual 30" displays! Just need one DP-to-DL-DVI adapter.

Take it easy f!
Chris
 
Just Water cool it, if you have 700$ to put on a video card you prob. have money to get water cooler setup ( when its out ) so sound should not be a problem. Lets see whos gonna win the video card competition when gtx 590 will be out. Not hard to beat 😀
 
As soon as they are officially in stock, I'm definitely going to get one. I understand the complaints about noise and performance relative to other xFire solutions already available (6970x2 for example); however, this card is PERFECT for my configuration. I fraked up and got a nice motherboard a while ago (with an OCed Q9550 in it), so as far as CPU usage for gaming, I'm gold, BUT the one oversight I made with the motherboard was getting one that didn't support full 16x lanes when you're running xFire, it changes to 16x and 4x *sobs*, so rather than buy a new motherboard, new RAM, and TWO video cards (i'd go for 6970x2 ;D) I can just buy this one card. Case is huge and well ventilated and I've got a 850W PSU, all I need....is my card, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! (oh, and as soon as I'm happy with the prices and bezels on LED-LCD monitors, 20"+, i'll be going with a 5 monitor setup, most likely)
 
Yeah, when Nvidia cards suck a lot of power and produce heat it is all about how bad of a company Nvidia is. Oh, but if AMD does it that is perfectly fine. Sorry AMD fan boys but you are such hypocrites.
 
I don't think people realize just how loud this card is. Decibels are a logarithmic unit. :O Thus something that is 60 dB vs 50dB is not 20% louder. It's a staggering 10x louder. TEN TIMES.
 
[citation][nom]kslghost[/nom]I don't think people realize just how loud this card is. Decibels are a logarithmic unit. Thus something that is 60 dB vs 50dB is not 20% louder. It's a staggering 10x louder. TEN TIMES.[/citation]

Yeah, seriously. Big difference. Also I can hear a fan that loud even with my speakers on.
 
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]6970s will do dual 30" displays! Just need one DP-to-DL-DVI adapter.Take it easy f!Chris[/citation]
thank you for the reply and answer chris it answers a huge nagging question. computer noise dampening is a tailored & specialty market i jumped into in the past year just to keep busy. i borrowed ideas from maytag and auto manufacturers and extrapolated on their technology. it adds about another $40-$100 in parts and labor and i have never had a customer complain yet... mind you my customers do not like to have these ugly machines in sight so they are enclosed and sometimes ventilated in their desk or behind a wall in a storage closet. let's just say some cork/foam padding, carpet, and fiberglass insulation can work wonders!
 
[citation][nom]jasonpwns[/nom]Yeah, when Nvidia cards suck a lot of power and produce heat it is all about how bad of a company Nvidia is. Oh, but if AMD does it that is perfectly fine. Sorry AMD fan boys but you are such hypocrites.[/citation]

I gave up on arguing that point, but you're right. The double-standard is pretty crazy. We can't even recommend a *different combination of cards from AMD* without being "AMD haters."
 
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]I gave up on arguing that point, but you're right. The double-standard is pretty crazy. We can't even recommend a *different combination of cards from AMD* without being "AMD haters."[/citation]

Yeah, I'm not an AMD nor Nvidia fan boy. I just get sick at people band-wagoning and switching companies over a bit of heat. Then those same people are drolling over this card right now. Don't understand that. I will continue using Nvidia since it works and until they ruin that for me ill be good.
 
[citation][nom]f-14[/nom]thank you for the reply and answer chris it answers a huge nagging question. computer noise dampening is a tailored & specialty market i jumped into in the past year just to keep busy. i borrowed ideas from maytag and auto manufacturers and extrapolated on their technology. it adds about another $40-$100 in parts and labor and i have never had a customer complain yet... mind you my customers do not like to have these ugly machines in sight so they are enclosed and sometimes ventilated in their desk or behind a wall in a storage closet. let's just say some cork/foam padding, carpet, and fiberglass insulation can work wonders![/citation]

So, in your professional opinion, what do you think dumping the heat from one of these cards, or an Nvidia equivalent, assuming they use the same approach, would do in a compact, insulated case? Probably pretty bad?

I didn't mention this in the story, but Igor in our German lab got his hands on TWO 6990s for a follow-up story. He put a plastic pen inside an enclosed case with the two cards. I'm told that, running overnight, the pen started to melt. Should make an interesting anecdote for his follow-up piece. ;-)
 
Well I guess the best option now is to get two 2GB 6950s.You'll have 75% chance of turning at least one of them into a 6970 and run them at CF, at a cost of $540.
 
[citation][nom]Rezo721[/nom]As soon as they are officially in stock, I'm definitely going to get one. I understand the complaints about noise and performance relative to other xFire solutions already available (6970x2 for example); however, this card is PERFECT for my configuration. I fraked up and got a nice motherboard a while ago (with an OCed Q9550 in it), so as far as CPU usage for gaming, I'm gold, BUT the one oversight I made with the motherboard was getting one that didn't support full 16x lanes when you're running xFire, it changes to 16x and 4x *sobs*, so rather than buy a new motherboard, new RAM, and TWO video cards (i'd go for 6970x2 ;D) I can just buy this one card. Case is huge and well ventilated and I've got a 850W PSU, all I need....is my card, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! (oh, and as soon as I'm happy with the prices and bezels on LED-LCD monitors, 20"+, i'll be going with a 5 monitor setup, most likely)[/citation]


I would consider upgrade your PSU to at least 1000Watt + running a Q9550 OC with that card would be like around 600-700w full load so your psu will be at 80% load on most time lol/
 
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