AMD Raises the Mobile Performance Bar with Radeon HD 6990M

[onethreehill]

The battle for graphics supremacy has been going for well over a decade now, with several casualties of war along the way (RIP 3dfx, Trident, S3, etc.). The primary competitors continue to be NVIDIA and AMD, and with NVIDIA having recently reclaimed the single GPU performance crown on both desktops and laptops with their GTX 580/580M, it’s time for AMD to respond. We’re not presenting any details for next generation desktop parts at present, and in fact the HD 6990M isn’t much of a surprise, but either way AMD is ready to release the details of their next mobile GPU.......

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4494/a...adeon-hd-6990m

[WangChung]

It'd be really cool if mini-ITX or even Micto ATX boards started using mini PCIe instead of full sized cards. HTPCs would be so much sweeter, especially with this bad boy!

[STEvil]

It'd be really cool if mini-ITX or even Micto ATX boards started using mini PCIe instead of full sized cards. HTPCs would be so much sweeter, especially with this bad boy!

adaptors do exist

[PatRaceTin]

dual gpu for notebook?

[Lightman]

dual gpu for notebook?

It's based on full Barts core with 1120 shaders. It is not dual GPU based despite the name being very similar to desktop HD6990.
HD 6990M = single Barts GPU with 1120 shaders clocked @715MHz and 3.6GHz GDDR5 256bit memory interface.

But there will be laptops with CrossFired HD6990M's on the market. [It sounds a bit wrong to call them laptops though )

[zalbard]

It's based on full Barts core with 1120 shaders. It is not dual GPU based despite the name being very similar to desktop HD6990.
HD 6990M = single Barts GPU with 1120 shaders clocked @715MHz and 3.6GHz GDDR5 256bit memory interface.

Uses a different core and nearly 3x less shaders than the desktop counterpart... Talk about smart naming.

[Lightman]

Uses a different core and nearly 3x less shaders than the desktop counterpart... Talk about smart naming.

Yes, I know. I would prefer consistency in naming between desktop and mobile as well, but reality is a bit more grim.
Nothing can beat nVidia GT555M though! Not only same card can be based on two very different chips, it's clock specs are variable as well :P

to quote AnandTech article:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M "A"
96 CUDA Cores, 16 TMUs, 4 ROPs, Core Clock: 753MHz, Shader Clocks: 1506MHz
128-bit Memory Bus, GDDR5, Effective Memory Clocks: 3138MHz
Desktop Counterpart: GeForce GT 440 GDDR5 (GF108)
And this is where NVIDIA's mobile lineup completely loses its mind. The GeForce GT 555M is actually two completely different chips and configurations; the "A" and "B" are our designation. Our "A" configuration is essentially just a souped-up version of the GT 525M/540M/550M, with a higher core clock and the benefit of GDDR5. While NVIDIA lists both versions on their site (though lacking an explanation as to why this split was made), a glance at NewEgg suggests this "A" version is the more common of the two (powering MSI and Lenovo laptops while the "B" version resides almost exclusively in an Alienware.) You can recognize the "A" version by the use of GDDR5, but since it and the "B" version are so bizarrely matched we can't really tell definitively which one would be the faster of the two. (No review available.)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M "B"
144 CUDA Cores, 24 TMUs, 24 ROPs, Core Clocks: 590MHz, Shader Clocks: 1180MHz
192-bit Memory Bus, DDR3, Effective Memory Clocks: 1.8GHz
Desktop Counterpart: None (GF106)
The other configuration of the GT 555M is a substantially beefier chip with six times the ROPs, but it operates at lower clocks and lower memory bandwidth due to the use of DDR3 instead of GDDR5. It's essentially a die-harvested version of GF106, and is identifiable by both the use of DDR3 and memory configurations of either 1.5GB of 3GB. It remains inexplicable why NVIDIA decided to use two completely different chips for the GT 555M, but hopefully this makes it a little easier to tell which is which. Raw calculations of pixel and texture fillrate suggest this "B" configuration to be the faster of the two, and as such it's probably the one to look for. Thus far we've only seen it in the Alienware M14x. (No review available.)

Clearly nVidia has more experience in naming mobile GPU line

[zerazax]

Uses a different core and nearly 3x less shaders than the desktop counterpart... Talk about smart naming.

Hence the M designation

Awesome though what they can put into a notebook GPU though these days.. you're getting essentially a downclocked desktop 6870!

Also, Alienware's M18x has the 6990M in CF for $500 more than a single GTX 560M. Compare that to $1200 for the dual GTX 580M... Nvidia's pricing is a joke

[WangChung]

I haven't found any adapters, except for this prototype card from MSI:
http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/...-0-0-jpg-.html

But I'm talking about a direct MXM connection on a Mini ITX board completely doing away with the full length PCIe slot.

[STEvil]

The problem is the MXM spec changes too often, so an adapter is the best..

[cegras]

How would one buy these cards anyways? And cooling ...

I liked that HP Firebird PC, used mobile cards.