HD 6990 reviews and discussion

[herpity]

That doesn't mean easy, that means efficient.

The flick of a switch is as easy as it gets.

You're trying to tell me Headroom and Temps don't matter in OCing?

Bullshit,

Couldn't care less about there stupid switch, takes 5 mins in afterburner.

What matters is OC headroom (Low) and temps (High).

 

[TheViper]

Can you take that same 5 minutes and find in my post where I said that headroom and temps don't matter in overclocking? Because I took a full minute myself and couldn't find it.

Of course they matter. But those are factors of efficiency, not ease. A single switch is still "easier" than minutes worth of configurations in Afterburner.

Why are you having issues with grasping the concept of something being "easy". I don't think anyone stated it was efficient at overclocking, but rather it was easy to overclock.

 

[herpity]

Can you take that same 5 minutes and find in my post where I said that headroom and temps don't matter in overclocking? Because I took a full minute myself and couldn't find it.

Of course they matter. But those are factors of efficiency, not ease. A single switch is still "easier" than minutes worth of configurations in Afterburner.

Why are you having issues with grasping the concept of something being "easy". I don't think anyone stated it was efficient at overclocking, but rather it was easy to overclock.

I would consider headroom and temp more indactors of ease than anything else.

They make it much easier to OC, as difficulties (Read: Opposite of ease), come into play when the chip reaches high tempatures or does not have enough headroom.

A button press to gain a few mhz is nothing but a gimmick, (I would argue that the millionth of a calorie expended by opening the case and bending over to press the button is much harder and more difficult than 3 mouse clicks, which requires no energy whatsoever) and does nothing to ease the process of actually overclocking the chip, as I do not consider a button press to return a card to what the stock settings should have been an overlcock.


Simply setting up a preset in afterburner would accomplish the same thing, and you wouldn't have to touch your hardware.

I spent a few minutes thinking of WHY AMD would do such a thing, when software would be a better way to reach the same effect.

A button in CCC that says: 'Return 6990 to enhanced speeds?' or something along those lines would be a much better idea.

 

[TheViper]

Warranty and not everyone uses the CCC is why they optioned for a switch for dual BIOS.

And the definition of an overclock is increasing clock speeds beyond their manufactured default settings. Doesn't matter what you think the default clock speed should be; it's what you get from the manufacturer.

 

[plznote]

The dual-BIOS is awesome.

 

[herpity]

Warranty and not everyone uses the CCC is why they optioned for a switch for dual BIOS.

And the definition of an overclock is increasing clock speeds beyond their manufactured default settings. Doesn't matter what you think the default clock speed should be; it's what you get from the manufacturer.

Using the switch invalidates the warrenty.

And, speaking of invalid, the above statement invalidates your arguement.

 

[Carc369]

Lol? How does "The dual-bios is awesome" statement invalidate his argument?

His argument remains the same and is very accurate.

 

[plznote]

The dual-Bios lets you switch to a 6970X2 with a flick of a switch.
Hence, I say it is awesome.

 

[emergancy exit]

what would be the minimum processor required to not "bottleneck" this card?

would i have to overclock a phenomx4 or would it just be better to use a phenom 6 core?

wich core i5?

i dont do a ton of computing power all i want to do is run games, watch movies, brows the net. i dont want to have to overclock if i dont have to mainly because i want a computer that will last me alot of years and wont give me any headaches down the road. i think a core i7 would be overkill for what i use a computer for.

i want a build that can run dual monitors without any headaches so before my only option was sli or xfire but i like using only one card. i was thinking 8 gigs of ram quadcore processor and a cheap 80-120gig ssd does this sound like a good plan?

 

[plznote]

I think the 1090T/i5 would be enough if overclocked.

 

[jjb8675309]

what would be the minimum processor required to not "bottleneck" this card?

would i have to overclock a phenomx4 or would it just be better to use a phenom 6 core?

wich core i5?

i dont do a ton of computing power all i want to do is run games, watch movies, brows the net. i dont want to have to overclock if i dont have to mainly because i want a computer that will last me alot of years and wont give me any headaches down the road. i think a core i7 would be overkill for what i use a computer for.

i want a build that can run dual monitors without any headaches so before my only option was sli or xfire but i like using only one card. i was thinking 8 gigs of ram quadcore processor and a cheap 80-120gig ssd does this sound like a good plan?

start your own thread with your budget, etc... and people can suggest you a build, personally I would say go for a i5 2500k based build if you want it to last for several years, for the money that will be a lot better than any AMD cpu right now

 

[emergancy exit]

^^ well i thought the processor question was a legitamate question. all the reviews ive found they just stick the i7 in there and call it a day

 

[jjb8675309]

yeah didnt mean to call you out I was just saying that if you want good advice start a proper thread for it, but overall like I said above I would stick with the i5 2500k to build my system around

 

[Rollo]

HD6990 has the same amount of cores as the HD6970 ,it runs at 830mhz, between the 6970 and 6950.
Headroom is constrained by the die node and Temp doesnt mean much when u have enough air flow.....

If u're arguing that the 6990 can hit 40% increase in clocks, u can try the GTX590 since I heard they're a pair of GTX580 at 500 something mhz........so maybe with 3 8pins, u can hit 1ghz with those chips :lol:

I don't think you'll be so amused when the reviews of the 590 hit tomorrow, speaking as someone who most likely has one.




NVIDIA Focus Group Member
NVIDIA Focus Group Members receive free software and/or hardware from NVIDIA from time to time to facilitate the evaluation of NVIDIA products.
However, the opinions expressed are solely those of the Members.

 

[herpity]

HD6990 has the same amount of cores as the HD6970 ,it runs at 830mhz, between the 6970 and 6950.
Headroom is constrained by the die node and Temp doesnt mean much when u have enough air flow.....

If u're arguing that the 6990 can hit 40% increase in clocks, u can try the GTX590 since I heard they're a pair of GTX580 at 500 something mhz........so maybe with 3 8pins, u can hit 1ghz with those chips :lol:

You restated what I said, want a cookie?

And I'm argueing that the 6990 can't OC well, where did you pull 40% from?

 

[vang_teng2000]

When I power up my Pavilion dv2000, I have blue lights but the screen remains black / blank. I can't hear the pc booting any further. I replaced NEW motherboard, still the same problem....need help

 

[plznote]

The 590 sure is powerful.
Overclocking gives 20%+ increase.

 

[Carc369]

^ Benchies ?
Cant wait.....!!!!!!!!!
for something that wont even sell as well as Intel HD 2000

http://www.techspot.com/review/378-nvidia-geforce-gtx-590/page10.html
http://hardocp.com/article/2011/03/24/asus_geforce_gtx_590_video_card_review
http://hothardware.com/News/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-590-Review-Dual-GF110s-One-PCB/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-590-dual-gf110-radeon-hd-6990,2898.html

 

[TheViper]

I don't think you'll be so amused when the reviews of the 590 hit tomorrow, speaking as someone who most likely has one.




NVIDIA Focus Group Member
NVIDIA Focus Group Members receive free software and/or hardware from NVIDIA from time to time to facilitate the evaluation of NVIDIA products.
However, the opinions expressed are solely those of the Members.

So the reviews are in and it appears the 590 is a card you definitely don't want to overclock at all. Tech Power Up's 590 blew up on them when trying to overclock it.

And on a stock for stock basis, it's a statistical tie for performance until the 2560 x 1600 resolution (the ONLY resolution you should really use these cards with) the 6990 takes an easy win thanks to the VRAM difference.

 

[herpity]

That was a typo, I meant to say it cant hit 40% OC, cause we all know it's technically impossible for it to go 1.4ghz core

Typo or no typo, I fail to see your point.

Me: 6990 Doesn't OC very well.

You: Shiny button!

Me: Button is useless gimmick

You: Shiny!

You: 6990 can OC to 40% higher clocks!

Me: What is this I don't even.

You: It was a typo, but the other option is equally stupid!

Me:

 

[darkphox]

HardOCP did widescreen gaming benchmarks and had some interesting thoughts. Single screen gaming, either one is overkill. Once surround gaming was added, the differences are apparent. GTX 590 beat the 6990, but it was in games where both cards got over 100fps anyhow. 6990 beat the GTX in more strenuous games, where frames are at or below 60, where they're a little more meaningful. They also did it with less overall power draw, albeit at 2-3 degrees hotter.

"We truly thought the GTX 590 was going to make the Radeon 6990 look bad, but the fact of the matter is that NVIDIA made the 6990 look that much better. The GTX 590 is not the "World's Fastest Single Card Solution" as stated on our page 1 slides; the Radeon HD 6990 is very much retaining that title." - Hard OCP

In their post-action review they overclocked the 6990 and said they liked it better now than they did at first review (where they gave it a good smashing). I don't favor red or green, I favor the best px for my money and I am confident the 6990 was the right choice this go around...

 

[herpity]

6990 needs water cooling, 590 is semi useable as an air cooled card.

 

[Rollo]

So the reviews are in and it appears the 590 is a card you definitely don't want to overclock at all. Tech Power Up's 590 blew up on them when trying to overclock it.

And on a stock for stock basis, it's a statistical tie for performance until the 2560 x 1600 resolution (the ONLY resolution you should really use these cards with) the 6990 takes an easy win thanks to the VRAM difference.

First, here's NVIDIA's official statement on the cards people have managed to blow up by running 25% above spec power through them:

“The few press reports on GTX 590 boards dying were caused by overvoltaging to unsafe levels (as high as 1.2V vs. default voltage of 0.91 to 0.96V), and using older drivers that have lower levels of overcurrent protection. Rest assured that GTX 590 operates reliably at default voltages, and our 267.84 launch drivers provide even more additional levels of protection for overclockers. For more information on overclocking and overcurrent protection on GTX 590 please see our knowledge base article here: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2947.”

Second, in that TechPowerup the "easy win" at 25 X 16 you referred to was 3% overall. Is that really worth listening to the blowdryer roar of the 6990?





NVIDIA Focus Group Member
NVIDIA Focus Group Members receive free software and/or hardware from NVIDIA from time to time to facilitate the evaluation of NVIDIA products.
However, the opinions expressed are solely those of the Members.

 

[TheViper]

First, here's NVIDIA's official statement on the cards people have managed to blow up by running 25% above spec power through them:

“The few press reports on GTX 590 boards dying were caused by overvoltaging to unsafe levels (as high as 1.2V vs. default voltage of 0.91 to 0.96V), and using older drivers that have lower levels of overcurrent protection. Rest assured that GTX 590 operates reliably at default voltages, and our 267.84 launch drivers provide even more additional levels of protection for overclockers. For more information on overclocking and overcurrent protection on GTX 590 please see our knowledge base article here: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2947.”

Second, in that TechPowerup the "easy win" at 25 X 16 you referred to was 3% overall. Is that really worth listening to the blowdryer roar of the 6990?





NVIDIA Focus Group Member
NVIDIA Focus Group Members receive free software and/or hardware from NVIDIA from time to time to facilitate the evaluation of NVIDIA products.
However, the opinions expressed are solely those of the Members.

It blew up, man. Are you in good conscious truly going to try to defend that?

Oh wait, your boilerplate signature tells the whole story. You wouldn't be a good company man if you didn't.

 

[herpity]

It blew up, man. Are you in good conscious truly going to try to defend that?

Oh wait, your boilerplate signature tells the whole story. You wouldn't be a good company man if you didn't.

Shut up and drink the damn koolaid.