Upgrading gpu to gtx 590 or radeon hd 6990. Help.

[alrobichaud]

Hi. So I have decided it's time to upgrade. I have read benchmark review after benchmark review as well as various customer reviews from sites such as newegg about both cards. As far as customer reviews go, I have read a lot of customer reviews where 590's were DOA or died shortly after first use. I realize that this is unlikely to happen but I have not read a single customer review where the AMD card has arrived dead or died a short time later. These facts are important to me because one of my options is a used PowerColor Radeon HD 6990 for approx $600. The Radeon HD 6990 and GTX 590 new are the same price at the local computer shop...$749.99. I know that AMD is soon coming out with the 7000 series and Nvidia should not be too far behind so please don't tell me to wait until the new year. As far as performance goes, benchmarks like 3dmark11 give a better score to the hd 6990 and in real world gaming tests both cards edge each other out depending on the game being tested.

This link http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/03/24/nvidia-geforce-gtx-590-3gb-review/2 gives all of the details about the architecture of both cards. In some areas AMD is better and in some areas Nvida is better.

So my options are new for 749.99 plus applicable taxes(13% in Canada) for a total of approx $850. Used, i can pick up a PowerColor Radeon HD 6990 for $600 and the best deal on a gtx 590 used is $700 which. If I was going to pay $700 used I would just purchase a new one instead but the $600 dollar used price tag on the AMD card has me interested.

Does anyone have any real world experience with either one or both of these cards. I would like to hear from you.

Thanks
Al

 

[alrobichaud]

I am returning the power supply to get something a bit higher in quality. I had no issues at all with my old 800W supply and my current setup but after I installed the 1200W supply, I started getting POST errors indicating an improperly seated video card and my computer would boot with no video at all. After restarting, everything would work like it should. After 20 cold boots, 14 times I had post errors and 6 times I did not. After restarting once, It corrected the problem every time. It's like when the power supply first starts up it is unable to provide sufficient power to the video card. So I put my old 800W supply back in and after 10 cold boots, not one post error. Guess I should have spent another 50 bucks and got quality instead of crap.

 

[we1shcake]

im gonna reccomend the corsair ax1200 (can supply 1500w for short periods) or the ocz zx1250w which is cheaper but still fantastic quality

 

[Ninja Pants]

+1 to the AX1200, its expensive but it's worth it, maybe a bit of an overkill for your system (could get away with 1000W even with the extra 6970) but personally I like extra headroom in my PSU and that is one hell of a PSU.

 

[we1shcake]

+1 to the AX1200, its expensive but it's worth it, maybe a bit of an overkill for your system (could get away with 1000W even with the extra 6970) but personally I like extra headroom in my PSU and that is one hell of a PSU.

im about to get a ax1200 and use it to power a phenom x2 and a gtx470 , in enthusiast computing overkill does not exist

 

[Ninja Pants]

Finally someone that agrees with me 😛 I have an AX1200 in one of my rigs too, its just an awesome PSU.

 

[we1shcake]

Finally someone that agrees with me 😛 I have an AX1200 in one of my rigs too, its just an awesome PSU.

+1 just a shame its so damn big and expensive