HD 6990 Preview/Review

[Levesque]

So if it's such a niche product, why are they selling them faster then they can make them?

Because people like the card, and are buying them the second they are in stock. So resellers are price gouging because the product is selling like hot-cakes. That's all.

Case closed. No matter what people think, AMD made their homeworks, and the product is selling. So they were right to do it. Since they are selling them faster that they can make them.

[tajoh111]

So if it's such a niche product, why are they selling them faster then they can make them?

Because people like the card, and are buying them the second they are in stock. So resellers are price gouging because the product is selling like hot-cakes. That's all.

Case closed. No matter what people think, AMD made their homeworks, and the product is selling. So they were right to do it. Since they are selling them faster that they can make them.

As you can imagine, these were made in seriously low quantities, which i can imagine was part of the delay. What will determine if these cards are a real success is on how much marketshare they pick up over the long term in this segment vs their predecessor.

Also what will also make these cards a long term success is the effect on the end user as well. Not simply just a sale. E.g if people have negative experiences from these monster cards(both AMD and NV) from heat, noise, power or warranty issues, they may not buy from that GPU maker again.

Considering that some highend boutique brands are not offering dualCF 6990 like falconnw because of noise issues and are giving warning for noise for even the purchase of one card, these issues are very real. And although the initial batch of 6990 may sell out, user feedback may deter other users. Atleast for anandtech, the 6990 was the loudest setup by far and in OC mode(13 decibels louders than a gtx 480 which was supposedly a dustbuster). Considering that equates to something more than 13 times louder, that seems to make this card unusable for everyone but the water cooling crowd.

I thought my 4870x2 was loud, but this is 16 decibels louder according to anandtech in its (880mhz form) and even at 830mhz, it is 9 decibels louder than the 4870x2.

I worry for NV card as well considering it seems to use a 11" PCB, perhaps even more so.

I would rather wait for the next generation considering the caveats of this generation of ultra high ends.

As for warranty, I wouldn't trust xfx as their reputation has gone to mud.

http://www.overclock.net/ati/761201-...denial-82.html

Although the user had a good result in the end, he had to jump through many hoops and the warranty service at the end seemed more of a way to hush the user considering the size of the complaint forums at the end. None the less other users have had similar bad experiences.

[armartins]

I thought my 4870x2 was loud, but this is 16 decibels louder according to anandtech in its (880mhz form) and even at 830mhz, it is 9 decibels louder than the 4870x2.

You are far from right my friend. To a human perceive a sound as "doubled" it needs between 10 to 15 dbs more. 3db is the point at you apply the double of the potency in a driver (not the case here) and this is not considering the diminishing return of being already loud (eg 480 vs 6990 sound). And not considering either the specific sound of the air passing through the dissipator that may (or may not) have an annoying sound.

[tajoh111]

You are far from right my friend. To a human perceive a sound as "doubled" it needs between 10 to 15 dbs more. 3db is the point at you apply the double of the potency in a driver (not the case here) and this is not considering the diminishing return of being already loud (eg 480 vs 6990 sound). And not considering either the specific sound of the air passing through the dissipator that may (or may not) have an annoying sound.

I thought sound was logarithmic. It might work differently, but 10db should definitely be noticeable.