HD 6990 reviews and discussion

[TheViper]

*Looks over at a System B with a GTX 460 in it*

I don't drink Kool-aid, my friend.

 

[darkphox]

What surprises me is that people, and even a website or two (Tom's!) are talking about the highest performance gfx cards available...fighting for the title of "Fastest Graphics Card in the World" ...and they are making decisions based on fan volume! That is (IMO) an irrelevant issue when comparing these types of cards! TRUE, some people might want to use the computer they put one of these into as something besides a gaming rig...but these cards are designed for max performance. Nobody worries about noise when it's an engine in a souped up hot rod, regardless if they take it on a Sunday drive now and then. These are the computer equivalent. 6990 wins, and Nvidia fans complain about fan noise. If this were a mid-range card, valid argument. But this is a horsepower contest!

As for heat, the 6990 is 92 deg at load, where the 590 is 89. If you claim one needs to be under water then I hope you have the same opinion of the 590 because the gap is not that wide. Source:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/03/24/asus_geforce_gtx_590_video_card_review/8
also check out the power consumption there

When you reach resolutions/texture sizes that actually stretch the legs of these things the 6990 overpowers the 590. Simple as that. source:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/03/24/asus_geforce_gtx_590_video_card_review/4

Benches (Anand, & Hard OCP especially) prove it, there is no maybe about it. If you are worried about fan noise, or don't have 2560x1600 or more pixels to push then there are options aplenty...but at the end of the day the 6990 is more capable of handling the extremes. Making arguments that don't pertain to the performance aspect, or claiming one card is hot when the other is just as toasty are failing arguments trying to make green blooded folks feel better...and I'm not talking about Romulans

 

[Rollo]

Nobody worries about noise when it's an engine in a souped up hot rod, regardless if they take it on a Sunday drive now and then. These are the computer equivalent. 6990 wins, and Nvidia fans complain about fan noise. If this were a mid-range card, valid argument. But this is a horsepower contest!

Computers aren't hot rods, and they're not jet airplanes. For most people, the quieter a computer is, the better. That is why so many people complained about the GTX480 last year. Even though it was across the board faster than a 5870, it was much louder.

In this case, even if it's a "horsepower race" it's not a clear cut horsepower race because the 590 wins some of the benchmarks:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx-590_11.html#sect0

It looks like neither of the two new dual-processor graphics cards can claim absolute superiority in games. The Radeon HD 6990 and the GeForce GTX 590 won the same number of my tests and delivered the same performance in the rest of them.

Or Bit-Tech:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/03/24/nvidia-geforce-gtx-590-3gb-review/10

In some games the lead over even AMD’s massive Radeon HD 6990 4GB was substantial and in others only marginal, but the GTX 590 3GB is the king of the graphics cards based on the performance we saw.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=716&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=18

My tally of these results have the GTX 590 ahead in five tests, equal in five, and trailing in five....most would agree that the GTX 590 is the better choice.

And then there's the feature set. People also buy cards like this because they want to see computer games that don't look like console games.

I've been using 3d Vision, and then 3d Vision Surround, for two years and four months. ATi's 3d solution is like a high school science project with no computer monitors, and a 24fps limit at 1080p.

Likewise, I have a dozen games that use PhysX, and while that isn;t a deal maker/breaker for me, the games do look more realistic with the PhysX on. (not to mention ATi must agree as they've been trying to get together GPU accelerated physics (and failing) for five years now)

Basically all ATi gives a user is better performance at some games, and some settings, at the expense of a total lack of modern graphics features and hair dryer noise you have to put up with every minute you game.

BTW, as far as "high res" goes, I've benchmarked my 590 at 57X10 in Mafia2, Just Cause 2, and Far Cry 2 at over 70fps. The fact that I can turn on the PhysX enhanced water at Just Cause 2, the PhysX effect in Mafia 2, or play any of them in 3d doesn't exactly make me think "Jinkies! If I had a leaf blower 6990 I might play one of them at 80fps!".

The 6990 is just a primitive, loud card- a throwback to the early days of PC gaming when we didn't have any differentiating feautures and a "good HSF" was about a pound of aluminum with a 60mm fan spinning at 3000rpm and making your dog start beating his head against the wall.

 

[Carc369]

None of them oc well. Even 3 x 5970 got beaten by 3x Gtx 480s. Doesn't mean they're two gpus on one pcb they will oc awesomely.
Don't even know why you need to? For records? For what?

I couldn't find a use for even one of them. But then again I don't have a 3 monitor setup and i'm only using 1920x1080 resolution.

I usually go for the lower high-end single GPU although the 5xxx series I had a 5870.

 

[jjb8675309]

^Carc, what do you use 12 GB of RAM for?

 

[Embra]

None of them oc well. Even 3 x 5970 got beaten by 3x Gtx 480s. Doesn't mean they're two gpus on one pcb they will oc awesomely.
Don't even know why you need to? For records? For what?

The point is that both these cards are way over the top, and are for the pure enthusiast.

Should we only make GPU comparisons on stock speed and and not OC ability?
Comparisons should be consist across the board.

 

[Carc369]

^Carc, what do you use 12 GB of RAM for?

My OCD.

Had 6GB but I couldn't stand knowing I had 3 empty slots.

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah well at least RAM is kind of cheap these days 12 GB couldn't hurt you...

 

[plznote]

3x5970?

 

[Anik8]

^ no matter whether 3x or 'n'x 5970 you use,each gpus are using 1gb vram.Now when we use 2x 5970s its quad-fire and requires high cpu horsepower.When speaking of 3x 5970,its about trying hexa-fire or something like that which brings severe over-kills and bottlenecks from the gpu,cpu respectively but 3x 480 doesn't so its scaling has a slight chance of reaching higher fps and providing smoother gameplay with extra 512m vram/gpu but still I would like to see the actual benchmark that shows their performances.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The 6990 is just a primitive, loud card- a throwback to the early days of PC gaming when we didn't have any differentiating feautures and a "good HSF" was about a pound of aluminum with a 60mm fan spinning at 3000rpm and making your dog start beating his head against the wall.

Rollo, you're an nVidia shill who is actually paid by them to say crap like this. How many people do you think are going to take you seriously in this forum? We're all generally enthusiasts here with a lot of experience who have seen it all and heard it all before from 4 different sides. Once I read some of the nVidia spin-crap you posted, I generally skipped past all the other posts that had your name on it. I'm sure several others are doing the same. Your attempt to hijack this thread won't succeed. People are generally annoyed when someone from either the red or green team comes in and starts bad-mouthing the competition. It shows a lack of class. Interestingly, we do have someone who works for AMD on this board and he does a very good job of referring to the competition with decorum and respect. The Republicans' negative campaigning gave the Democrats the biggest landslide victory in US history. You might want to learn a lesson from that.

 

[herpity]

The Republicans' negative campaigning gave the Democrats the biggest landslide victory in US history. You might want to learn a lesson from that.

Don't even go there. I'm assuming your're talking about the 08 election, wich was a by-product of Affirmative-Action at the federal level, not negative campaignes. The only negatives were done by Hillary and Hussein.

 

[jjb8675309]

Rollo, you're an nVidia shill who is actually paid by them to say crap like this. How many people do you think are going to take you seriously in this forum? We're all generally enthusiasts here with a lot of experience who have seen it all and heard it all before from 4 different sides. Once I read some of the nVidia spin-crap you posted, I generally skipped past all the other posts that had your name on it. I'm sure several others are doing the same. Your attempt to hijack this thread won't succeed. People are generally annoyed when someone from either the red or green team comes in and starts bad-mouthing the competition. It shows a lack of class. Interestingly, we do have someone who works for AMD on this board and he does a very good job of referring to the competition with decorum and respect. The Republicans' negative campaigning gave the Democrats the biggest landslide victory in US history. You might want to learn a lesson from that.

If you think that is how government should be ran then move to Europe. Politics have no place on this site especially left sided discussions. Besides that people are entitled to their opinion and I bad mouth bad products all day long, it is beneficial for me to hear peoples complaints as well (of course not every statement is accurate but oh well). You are a hypocrite because you yell at Rollo, who did nothing wrong imo, yet you are slandering him throughout your post... how about posting some thoughtful insight or opinion instead?

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah, and yeah Bush is and was an idiot, as long as you know that Obama is a city planner at best and he too is an idiot, basically I just thought that the above commenter had no place ripping on Rollo, lets not turn this into a discussion about politics, I mean people rip on products that they don't like all day, whats wrong with that?

 

[Avro Arrow]

I was referring to the campaign strategy and then people open their mouths and say stupid things. It's amazing...LOL

 

[herpity]

Are u a republican ?
cause I do hope that u know Bush is still an idiot from both the right and the left side of politics

oh yea, it should be Clinton and Obama, or Hillary and Barack, or Rodham and Hussein, but then who the *** refers to someone with their middle names only ?

THe middle name just slipped out.

And I don't consider myself a republican, Im liberal on social issues.

It's liberal war and economic policies that represent the biggest problem for me.

 

[jjb8675309]

^^oh btw I was just curious why the dislike of intel and Nvidia?

 

[jjb8675309]

It's liberal war and economic policies that represent the biggest problem for me.

^agreed

 

[herpity]

^^oh btw I was just curious why the dislike of intel and Nvidia?

Both Intell and Nvidia have the stigma of big market share, big profits, crushing the competition, anti-competive practices, etc.

Or at least if you ask AMD fanboys.

 

[Anik8]

^ just hypothetically speaking on dadiggle's post

 

[plznote]

Is it possible to turn the 1GB 6950 into a 6970?

 

[jjb8675309]

no only the 2 gb reference models unlock

 

[jjb8675309]

how are those freakin things running? Did you get your multi-monitor setup yet?

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah so my question that i implied was are you vsynced at 120 getting a good 120 fps in the games that you do play? If not then what is the point to have a 120hz display? I'm not trying to be a dick I just wanna know for myself since I am considering picking up a new display. Obviously it can run at 60hz as well but if looking at it purely from a gaming prespective why would you go 120hz if you cannot manage >120hz minimums which seems unrealistic even for such a high end setup... what do you make of all this?

 

[herpity]

It's for 3d derp.