HD 6990 Preview/Review

[Iconyu]

I don't think this is the card AMD would have released if the 590 wasn't on the horizon. They've done some very interesting things with power management but 450w in top gear is scary.

I guess we'll see next month.

[PatRaceTin]

AMD Fail

[Utnorris]

In 7 days or so we will get a ton of reviews for those that want to see how the card performs in position 2. I find it funny that a bunch of people are complaining about the card running at factory overclock and being tested against the GTX580 at stock. This happens all the time with reviews when vendors release their factory overclock cards and no one complains about that. It's not like the reviewer overclocked it themselves or that AMD compared it to max overclock that may or may not be viable on all cards, they compared it to a card that is factory overclocked. If they had released it without the switch positions and said that 880Mhz was default, then what would every one be saying? I look at it as position two is like a power saving feature, not stock clocks since they are guaranteeing the 880mhz setting. As far as power consumption goes, does anyone that buy these cards care? What about the power consumption of two GTX580's? You do not get this card if you are trying to save the world or you want a lower power bill. This is not, I repeat, this is not a die shrink or new architecture, so power consumption should not surprise anyone. This card is a monster, just like what the GTX590 will be aimed at the high end crowd that could care less about the power requirements.

[RacingTurtle]

AMD Fail

Great analysis there.

[zalbard]

With 830/1250 - 1536SP for each gpus on HD6990, GTX590 need al least 700/1400/1000 - 512SP to just PAIR performance: little over at 1920 AA, little under at 2560 AA.

It's technically 880/1250. People just have to flip the BIOS switch. Bet 99% of people are going to do that shortly after installing the card.

[Gilgamesh]

You're forgetting one thing. If I read correctly from the article, typical game workload is 350W. Powertune limit being so close at 375W, the card is bound to be throttling a lot on shader heavy loads. If I remember correctly, even HD6970 was throttling on 3D Mark Perlin noise test with a TDP limit of 250 W (vs 190 typical).

I don't forgetting that

But can you bet on GTX590 beating this power/performance without "throttling" at 350-400W range?

User can change Power tune setting in CCC: with +20% HD6970 don't throttle even with Furmark/OCCT.

[SKYMTL]

Dual link requires an ACTIVE DP adaptor while single link can use a passive one. It's a money saving path considering active adaptors cost upwards of $100 each.

[Olivon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QkyfGJgcwQ

Misunderstanding ?

[OutSider]

MSI 6990 at cebit

[Gilgamesh]

It's technically 880/1250. People just have to flip the BIOS switch. Bet 99% of people are going to do that shortly after installing the card.

Agree. If buyers don't care for 375W, why care for 450W

But Nvidia GTX590 can marginally beat 2x 880/1250 - 1536SP perhaps only over 750Mhz gpus: aggressive hand picking GF110s under 1.0V, and huge thermal throttling

Just my 2 cent: 1-2 weeks we have all reviews.

[QuadDamage]

Wow this one sure reaks of fail. I'd rather go for two 6970's than this oversized and uselss hunk of junk.

[Manicdan]

Wow this one sure reaks of fail. I'd rather go for two 6970's than this oversized and uselss hunk of junk.

what were you hoping for?

[biohead]

Seriously, people can't get enough of complaining about everything lately. Everything's amazing, and nobody's happy?

[RaV666]

Wow this one sure reaks of fail. I'd rather go for two 6970's than this oversized and uselss hunk of junk.

Two 6970`s, are gonna draw more power,cost more(probably) or the same and take up more space.So, what gives ?
Every dual gpu card follows the same path, so if this fails, every dual gpu card fails

[SpuTnicK]

AMD pron:

source

[Alex-Ro]

Maybe nvidia will learn to build a decent PCB and power circuit too...

[zerazax]

Wow that PCB looks very clean

[DarthShader]

This is really funny they Compare dual-GPU with single-GPU!!!......lol

Agreed, they should have compared it to a gTX295... And run DX11 games too...

450W under OC mode
freaking ridiculous
67% faster than gtx580 under OC => about 63% faster gtx580 under normal mode.
I have strong belief that gtx590's gonna bury this premature monster alive

AMD marketing department has become shadier than NV as of late.

lolwut? It's an embargoed slide you won't see released officialy.

Observation: The slide is dated december 2010. There have been some improvements since.

[deathman20]

Wow.... that is one heck of a card that is for sure.

As for power consumption, really doesn't look like they shaved off to much with the GPU on the dual board vs the single card, I'd say its pretty in line with roughly 175-200W per core. Though really they should be able to use lower voltages on the core to hit those speeds. They should be using the 6950's GPU voltage @ 1.1V if not lower to hit 900Mhz on binned chips. If mine and others can easily take there 6950's to 900Mhz on 1.1V with all the shaders unlocked, surely AMD can find some that can too. Doesn't help tones but hey 15-20W per core can make or break it with lower voltages going from 830 to 900Mhz

[Pantsu]

Looks like half the memory chips are on the backside of the card.

[DMH]

If the big problem for Nvidia not doing GTX590 with GTX580 cores was the 300W limit and AMD just came up with a 375W default card I think Nvidia will have no problem putting their 580 cores on a GTX590

[kadozer]

I wish they would just give us a limited edition single gpu 375w card. 1 big monster chip to rule them all.

[\/icious]

Wow this one sure reaks of fail. I'd rather go for two 6970's than this oversized and uselss hunk of junk.

If you really expected more from this you are clueless my friend. For what this card is its pretty damn good. A lot of these complaining post seem to be more or less people not taking the time to think before they post.
Anyhow im looking forward to seeing this 590 in action since its clear there is no 300w limit at play with these card.

[Kristoferr]

Well, nvidia cards has always been less power efficent than AMDs. Including GTX580 vs HD 6970. So if they want to beat this 6990, they will have to come up with card which consumes 400W at least.

[\/icious]

If the big problem for Nvidia not doing GTX590 with GTX580 cores was the 300W limit and AMD just came up with a 375W default card I think Nvidia will have no problem putting their 580 cores on a GTX590

What i dont think you are taking in to consideration is the difference in power draw. Guru3d suggests that the 580 at full load draws around 258w while the 6970 draws around 207 fully loaded.