GTX 590 reviews

[DarthShader]

NVIDIA has shown that ultra high end performance DOESN'T NEED to come with a tradeoff in terms of high acoustics or high core temperatures.

Really no tradeoffs? The power consumption is around the 6990 is OC mode and the temps...



http://www.hardware.fr/articles/747-...thermique.html

6990 : http://www.hardware.fr/articles/747-...thermique.html

Noise levels are lower, but calling it "very quiet" is a stretch. Although they indeed make say, what was AMD thinking? I guess it will be up to the AIBs to design something better there.

[IvanAndreevich]

The graphics card industry has been a disappointment for the last 4 years, and the trend continues.

[flippin_waffles]

overall I think the GTX 590 is a real mixed bag.

-The minimum Frame rates are really good
-The temps are mind blowingly good (no one could have called this...)
-The power consumption is ok
-The physical size is impressive
-The noise output is really good....

But the overall perf is lower then a 6990 on average. I would say an average of about 5-10%. The thing that makes that really hard is that in some games it performs really really well in others not at all. Also it the high res high settings performance is all over the map as well. the 6990 beats it in Just Cause 2 at 2560 pretty decently but then the GTX 590 under surround.... but close to the opposite is true in AvP. Performance seems to be game Dependant.... the big thing for me tho is how little these seem to OC on stock voltage... they really dumped the voltage off to get the power under the 6990 and it seems to hurt the OC of the card a bunch. however I would like to see some OC results with some extra core voltage in afterburner.... that could make it far more attractive considering that you could get away with it on the stock cooling without getting crazy loud or hot....

it comes down to price I think which puts it neck and neck with the 6990....

I would say it is a more "N00B friendly" card considering that it's smaller and cooler and whatnot so for non enthusiast I would say its the better buy. for most XS users tho the 6990 seems to be your better bet considering the better performance. however added voltage in OCing could change all that.

Yeah, i'd agree with that. What gets me is somebody claiming that performance takes a back seat, when the community furiously objects to any opinion that anything other than an intel CPU is not worthy of consideration. So what i'd like to know, is only the best worthy of XS or not? These ever changing goal posts are a real problem.

[tajoh111]

Both cards are disappointing but I would choose the 6990 at this point because of the overclocking danger that might be on the gtx 590. Both are fast enough for current games but none the less, I would say the 6990 is slightly faster. BUtthe only reason I would get get a 6990 is because I also have a water block. That tomshardware video makes the 6990 sound unusable with it stock cooling.

If I didn't have a water setup I would choose the gtx 590.

Both cards are showing the limitations of being stuck on 40nm which makes both cards a barrel of compromises.

[highoctane]

Both cards are showing the limitations of being stuck on 40nm which makes both cards a barrel of compromises.

Yeah, hopefully 28nm fixes the short comings we're seeing now. The feeling you get from 40nm on these latest chips from both is kinda like wearing shoes a size too small, it just doesn't quite seem comfortable.

[kgk]

In addition, most sites use the Civ benchmarking tool which I find IS NOT representative of the in-game performance. So we don't bench Civ either.

That's kind of pointless. It's a popular game. Just bench Civ V gameplay and stick the Civ V Compute benchmark where it belongs with all the other compute benchmarks.

Anandtech seems to sort it just fine.

[Zloyd]

I think people who seriously want a 590 or 6990 should wait for their special versions from Asus Gigabyte Msi ... I think the partners can improve these cards a lot and make them worth it.

[[XC] hipno650]

Yeah, i'd agree with that. What gets me is somebody claiming that performance takes a back seat, when the community furiously objects to any opinion that anything other than an intel CPU is not worthy of consideration. So what i'd like to know, is only the best worthy of XS or not? These ever changing goal posts are a real problem.

well some of us do have standards.... when the performance difference is as small as 5-10% it makes sense and as pointed out there are extra bonuses that the GTX 590 has over the 6990 which for some people are a really big deal...

AMD CPU's are just not competitive for almost any sort of high performance computing especially RTS (CPU intensive) gaming.... Sandy Bridge destroys AMD's current CPU in almost every way possible.... to think of getting one for an "Xtreme System" would be questionable.... ya they are "good CPUs" and fine for web browsing or for your parents computer but they get cleaned out pretty good in everything else.

I can see myself in many situations recommending a GTX 590 for customers of mine. but not an AMD CPU for anything besides home usage.... in which case I would most likely recommend an i3 to save some money...

granted once you OC 1100T to around 4GHZ it can handle pretty much any gaming without issue.... But why you would get one over a cheaper 2500K that can OC to 5GHZ is beyond me....

[bryanw1995]

Funny, I have talked to several reviewers about this and out of the ~13 cards we all have, none has died in situations where the default voltage was adhered to...

Methinks something is going on there in Europe.

probably caused by a that whole 230/115v conundrum...

[bryanw1995]

I don't think that is the case since there was a good mix of retail and non-retail samples in the people I talked to. However, only time will tell if this is a true "issue" or not.

looks like a lot of people have had issues:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost...&postcount=137

[Postmodum]

Really no tradeoffs? The power consumption is around the 6990 is OC mode and the temps...



http://www.hardware.fr/articles/747-...thermique.html

6990 : http://www.hardware.fr/articles/747-...thermique.html

Noise levels are lower, but calling it "very quiet" is a stretch. Although they indeed make say, what was AMD thinking? I guess it will be up to the AIBs to design something better there.

Amazing reading ... so the 6990 has a better thermal performance all in all ? Really weird after all what was said about GTX590 cooling and temperatures...

[SubZero.it]

Performance per watt on the 590 is 20% less than 6990 according to TPU, and two of their game tests are nvidia biased games (in which a 570/580 would outperform the 6990 for example)

The 6990 is loud (not like we don't know how to adjust fan speeds) but in a lot of games it will perform as well or better than the 590 I think.

Must agree here again. The monolitic nvidia design needs an upgrade

[Lanek]

Both cards are disappointing but I would choose the 6990 at this point because of the overclocking danger that might be on the gtx 590. Both are fast enough for current games but none the less, I would say the 6990 is slightly faster. BUtthe only reason I would get get a 6990 is because I also have a water block. That tomshardware video makes the 6990 sound unusable with it stock cooling.

If I didn't have a water setup I would choose the gtx 590.

Both cards are showing the limitations of being stuck on 40nm which makes both cards a barrel of compromises.

Well when i agree on 40nm .... speaking about watercooling only for the 6990 is way to exagerate. third party air coolers, as the Artic cooling one, is to an option, when someone want OC under aircooling for the CPU, he buy a Noctua or whatever good air cooler, when someone want or silent or performance, this is the same for the GPU .. ofc here we are compare ref vs ref cards ..

[Lanek]

looks like a lot of people have had issues:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost...&postcount=137

this is really starting to be sucpiscious, ofc i retain all judgement before get more infos about this...

[DarthShader]

Amazing reading ... so the 6990 has a better thermal performance all in all ? Really weird after all what was said about GTX590 cooling and temperatures...

What do you understand by "thermal performance"? The 590 is more efficient at taking the heat away from the cores, but since it takes more power in watts, those have to be disposed somewhere. 6990 disposes half of the heat back into the case, the 590 more than half, since there are memory chips on the backside, cooled by semi-backplates. This is most likely the reason for the 111C reading on the back. Still, that heat has to go somewhere. Another point in case would be measurments done at Anandtech:

Seagate 500GB Hard Drive Temperatures
Video Card 	Temperature
GeForce GTX 590 	42C
Radeon HD 6990 	        37C
Radeon HD 6990OC 	40C
Radeon 6970CF 	        27C

[cegras]

Personally, I don't include it due to the number of bugs it exhibits. There's nothing like a crash to desktop when you're in the middle of a benchmark run.

In addition, most sites use the Civ benchmarking tool which I find IS NOT representative of the in-game performance. So we don't bench Civ either.

Yeah, but Civ is within Steam's top 10 with above 15,000 players on a regular basis. So is CS:S, Shogun 2, BLOPS / MW2, TF2, and L4D2. *Including* (but not being exclusive) any of these games in a testing suite is almost a prerequisite for staying relevant and not just benchmarking fancy tech demos like AvP: 264 current players in the 1 million steam users online.

[CedricFP]

^ On all those games you listed, except Shogun, does it matter which card gets the better frame rate when they are pushing 150 fps anyway at high res and AA?

I mean, CS:S? TF2? Source at all?

On the subject of games in the suite, X3: Terran Conflict is often overlooked because it is massively CPU bound. But if you are benchmarking with a 4GHz+, you'll really unlock that game. Ramp up the res and the AA and pop into a crowded sector and watch your graphics card take a beating. I recommend this game to all reviewers who have overlooked it.

[SKYMTL]

Yeah, but Civ is within Steam's top 10 with above 15,000 players on a regular basis. So is CS:S, Shogun 2, BLOPS / MW2, TF2, and L4D2. *Including* (but not being exclusive) any of these games in a testing suite is almost a prerequisite for staying relevant and not just benchmarking fancy tech demos like AvP: 264 current players in the 1 million steam users online.

I can promise you that Shogun WILL be added once the DX11 patch is released in the next few weeks.

[cowie]

Nice popamiro's

I love those guys over there

Keep it cold it will run.

[SKYMTL]

Seems NVIDIA has an FAQ up about the OCP:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...p?p_faqid=2947

[IvanAndreevich]

Yeah, but Civ is within Steam's top 10 with above 15,000 players on a regular basis. So is CS:S, Shogun 2, BLOPS / MW2, TF2, and L4D2. *Including* (but not being exclusive) any of these games in a testing suite is almost a prerequisite for staying relevant and not just benchmarking fancy tech demos like AvP: 264 current players in the 1 million steam users online.

Are you serious man? I can game CSS @ 2560x1600 on my 8800 Ultra at high FPS

[cegras]

Are you serious man? I can game CSS @ 2560x1600 on my 8800 Ultra at high FPS

That's strange, because busy situations in TF2 @ 1440 x 900, 2xAA 8xAF with a 4850 and a C2D e7200 at 3.2 Ghz are still not as smooth as I'd like them to be.

Including a source game serves as a valuable reference for those of us who have old cards. We know how our cards perform, we can see how newer cards perform, and we can at least roughly translate this performance upgrade to other games.

[onethreehill]

Hey OTH we need you to work your magic and make a nice clean consolidated thread for reviews!

Another thread?
Just for you

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4239/n...ngle-card-king
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...=716&Itemid=72
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...0-3gb-review/1
http://www.chiphell.com/en/graphics/nvidia-gtx-590/
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/g...force-gtx-590/
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...o_card_review/
http://hardwarebg.com/geforce-gtx590...8%D0%B0%D0%BB/
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...gb-review.html
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/825-...e-gtx-590.html
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=29724&page=1
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/NVIDI...F110s-One-PCB/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-590-review/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...90-sli-review/
http://lab501.ro/placi-video/asus-ge...-of-the-titans
http://lab501.ro/placi-video/asus-gt...-frecventa-cpu
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1576/1/
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/g...tx590_review/1
http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=948018
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=1098
http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkel...-590-2-x-gf110
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...Force_GTX_590/
http://www.techreaction.net/2011/03/...g-of-the-hill/
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20629
http://www.techspot.com/review/378-n...force-gtx-590/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...6990,2898.html
http://www.tomshw.it/cont/articolo/g...0/30402/1.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...e-gtx-590.html

[bamtan2]

Performance per watt on the 590 is 20% less than 6990 according to TPU

and two of their game tests are nvidia biased games (in which a 570/580 would outperform the 6990 for example)

The 6990 is loud (not like we don't know how to adjust fan speeds) but in a lot of games it will perform as well or better than the 590 I think.

1. $700 video card buyers can afford the power difference.

2. was it guru3d that has the performance difference across many games averaged as 3%?

3. most kids think noise doesnt matter. I know, I was one. then we grow up. 6990 is significantly, prohibitively more noisy than 590.

[mycoolcar]

Video of a GTX 590 going POP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRo-1...layer_embedded