donanimhaber: HD6990 Preview/Review Slides

[mnewsham]

and speaking of being unrealistic. you do know most people that will buy these cards will be using i7 1366 which uses way more power than Sandy Bridge. again the typical person that would buy this card and oc it will be pushing their luck big time with most 750 watt psu out there. and that is nonsense to think you could run it overclocked on a 660 watt unit. people with common sense would never put their psu at 100% load. and again you a crazy to think a 750 watt psu can handle 2 of these cards stock with even a Sandy Bridge cpu setup because that would exceed the 12v on any 750 watt unit out there. you keep looking at the best case scenario under ideal conditions. I am looking at what would really happen with the type of person that would buy this level of gpu which is that they will test and push their components.

it was a typo in my post it was 557w on that system under 100% load with the TDP of the GPU at 400w that is 100w headroom on a 660w PSU and not close to the 100% load on the PSU.

 

[Silverforce11]

Seems weird that a fully clocked dual 6970 card would put up only that much performance.

My uber smart brain with thinking tells me that this card should be at least 70% faster on stock clocks (830mhz).

We still don't know if the 590 will feature 580 gpus.

That's average according to their internal benches on their selected games. If you look at the graph, the average is lowered by mostly dx9 and older dx10 games. In most of the dx11 games except for BC2 (4D is weak in this game), the advantage is considerably higher.

If AMD is willing to go to 350W gaming load, NV looks like they'll follow with x2 580s, IMO. There's no chance they will artificially cripple themselves unless they have to.

 

[-Slacker-]

If AMD is willing to go to 350W gaming load, NV looks like they'll follow with x2 580s, IMO. There's no chance they will artificially cripple themselves unless they have to.

At 250w per gpu, it looks to me like they sort of have to...

 

[Qbah]

2x full cores + BIOS switch + amazing CF scaling = AWESOME This card's gonna plow through anything!

 

[AtenRa]

well, with 375W limit NV could easily per 2x 580 (680-700MHz ?)

 

[Skurge]

well, with 375W limit NV could easily per 2x 580 (680-700MHz ?)

Its entirely possible, but the question is, did AMD catch nV of guard? nV might have been trying to stick to the 300W limit and its pretty hard to make a U turn and say replace the 570 GPUs they might be using and use 580 GPUs. Just my 2c

 

[AtenRa]

will have to wait to find out but i dont thing so, i believe they will use 2x 580

 

[Skurge]

So this card isnt PCI-E certified? So it won't come in pre-built systems? What are the other repercussions?

 

[Skurge]

Apparently you weren't here for the Fermi or 280 launches, when this board turned into a Greenpeace meeting.

Now that AMD is busting down power consumption records, I don't really expect that anymore haha.

You notice no-one complains about the 580's power usage thats the same as the 480? Do you know why that is?

 

[Keysplayr]

You notice no-one complains about the 580's power usage thats the same as the 480? Do you know why that is?

Yes. To maintain an illusion of consistency.

 

[Skurge]

Yes. To maintain an illusion of consistency.

Can't say that answer surprises me. Anyway.

Very impressive Quad Crossfire scaling here. I hope AMD sent out multiple cards to reviewers so we can see if this holds true in real world testing.

 

[Skurge]

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=29285

Looks like this thing was built for Eyefinity and nothing else.

 

[Aristotelian]

Fermi was ridiculed because the performance was not that much better than the competition while running hot, loud, and using way more power.

Thank you for hitting the nail on the head, so that I don't have to.

I honestly wish that more of AMD's cards had 'customization', such as EVGA's watercooled version of the 580. Imagine a 590, factory provided waterblock and so on? Well, I guess it's a very small target market, but it'd be nice for some more extreme options.

 

[Silverforce11]

Can't say that answer surprises me. Anyway.

Very impressive Quad Crossfire scaling here. I hope AMD sent out multiple cards to reviewers so we can see if this holds true in real world testing.

That is amazing stuff. We knew 2x CF was improved a lot, but for AMD to get such crazy scaling with 4x GPUs is nuts. Anything less than eyeinfinity resolution is a waste for these cards.

Crysis 2 looks to be pretty mild on the GPU.. most up coming games are console ports. Only BF3 may push it (hoping it will).

 

[RaistlinZ]

I'm confused about the power throttling. Does the card down-tune itself when running general apps and run at full power only when gaming? Is there a way to turn this feature off and have the card running at full power all the time?

I wonder what the non-reference cards will look like. If this thing is $600 then I'll probably buy it on Day 1. I'd just hate to have the 590 come and blow it out of the water though.

That said 2X6990 QuadFire is going to be rediculously awesome for those who can afford it.

 

[Skurge]

I'm confused about the power throttling. Does the card down-tune itself when running general apps and run at full power only when gaming? Is there a way to turn this feature off and have the card running at full power all the time?

I wonder what the non-reference cards will look like. If this thing is $600 then I'll probably buy it on Day 1. I'd just hate to have the 590 come and blow it out of the water though.

That said 2X6990 QuadFire is going to be rediculously awesome for those who can afford it.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/7

This explains it pretty well.

 

[nyker96]

I love the Uber switch it got on!

 

[tincart]

Regardless of whether the 6990 or 590 "wins", this looks to be the graphics card generation that truly opens up Eyefinity resolutions with a single card. Now the monitor industry is going to have to catch up.

 

[Skurge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlmtjwIyMzY

So far, these are the thinest Bezels I've seen and you get a stand, but the monitors themselves aren't very good and are overpriced.

EDIT: Scratch that, just checked that they are PVA monitors. Not the best for gaming, but good viewing angels.

 

[tviceman]

Can't say that answer surprises me. Anyway.

Very impressive Quad Crossfire scaling here. I hope AMD sent out multiple cards to reviewers so we can see if this holds true in real world testing.

The last thing I want to see reviewers waste their time on in initial reviews is SLI'd gtx590's or 6990's. Seriously. The cost and power requirements, let alone the monitor setup needed to justify this kind of configuration is less than 5% of the top 1% of PC gamers. At that point, it seems more like the reviewers are stroking their own hardware genitalia than giving us substantial, usable information.

 

[Skurge]

The last thing I want to see reviewers waste their time on in initial reviews is SLI'd gtx590's or 6990's. Seriously. The cost and power requirements, let alone the monitor setup needed to justify this kind of configuration is less than 5% of the top 1% of PC gamers. At that point, it seems more like the reviewers are stroking their own hardware genitalia than giving us substantial, usable information.

I'm sure reviewers have enough time to run all those benchmarks. If they can test SLI/Xfire configurations with midrange cards, I don't see why they can't do that with these cards. Regardless of how many people are going to use it. I might even take less time as they would blast through the benchmarks much faster.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Apparently you weren't here for the Fermi or 280 launches, when this board turned into a Greenpeace meeting.

Now that AMD is busting down power consumption records, I don't really expect that anymore haha.

OCGuy, I've seen a lot of your posts, I know you're not dumb. The GTX480 came out and didn't exactly blow the 5870 out of the water. It also was slower than the 5970, yet used more power and was louder.

If the GTX480 launched and wiped the floor with the 5970 and used more power, it wouldn't have been an issue.

It's not all that different than when the Radeon 2900 launched. It came late, didn't meet expectations, and used more power/was louder than the cards it competed with. It got thoroughly trashed on these forums because of that. The 2900 was even worse because it really wasn't even faster than Nvidia's second fastest single GPU card, hell I think some of the 9600's gave it a run. But the point still stands, Nvidia launched their part later and offered less performance than what was already available from the competition. During the 2900 launch there were plenty of people here that trashed it, and rightfully so. No one should be all butt hurt when Nvidia ends up in a similar situation.

This has been brought up before, I guess some people just didn't like it when the shoe is on the other foot...

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23595425&postcount=103

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23492562&postcount=33

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23374195&postcount=46

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23371248&postcount=4

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23372045&postcount=30

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23685616&postcount=6

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23686575&postcount=9

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23685364&postcount=50

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23628185&postcount=6

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23594857&postcount=99

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=52044&highlight=radeon+2900xt&page=21

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=24179360&postcount=28

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=24138459&postcount=13

 

[Skurge]

OCGuy, I've seen a lot of your posts, I know you're not dumb. The GTX480 came out and didn't exactly blow the 5870 out of the water. It also was slower than the 5970, yet used more power and was louder.

If the GTX480 launched and wiped the floor with the 5970 and used more power, it wouldn't have been an issue.

It's not all that different than when the Radeon 2900 launched. It came late, didn't meet expectations, and used more power/was louder than the cards it competed with. It got thoroughly trashed on these forums because of that. The 2900 was even worse because it really wasn't even faster than Nvidia's second fastest single GPU card, hell I think some of the 9600's gave it a run. But the point still stands, Nvidia launched their part later and offered less performance than what was already available from the competition. During the 2900 launch there were plenty of people here that trashed it, and rightfully so. No one should be all butt hurt when Nvidia ends up in a similar situation.

This has been brought up before, I guess some people just didn't like it when the shoe is on the other foot...

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23595425&postcount=103

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23492562&postcount=33

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23374195&postcount=46

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23371248&postcount=4

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23372045&postcount=30

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23685616&postcount=6

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23686575&postcount=9

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23685364&postcount=50

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23628185&postcount=6

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=23594857&postcount=99

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=52044&highlight=radeon+2900xt&page=21

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=24179360&postcount=28

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=24138459&postcount=13

I'm going to bookmark this post.

And to think someone thought ronn hates ati products.

 

[Grooveriding]

If AMD has managed to bring quad fire scaling up to the level of normal crossfire, it will be impressive whether or not many people use it or not.

These cards are all about excess and using two of these monsters is in keeping with that. It will also be a win in this bracket as Nvidia's quad scaling is awful.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'm going to bookmark this post.

And to think someone thought ronn hates ati products.

I'm going to bookmark this post.

And to think someone thought ronn hates ati products.

It's funny how similar many of those posts are to posts we saw recently regarding the GTX4x0 cards, many of the exact same things were said back then. It wasn't an issue when this was brought up in the 2900 days, but now it is for some reason. :hmm:

And it looks like I copied the wrong link in the third link up from the bottom. Oops... I had a lot of windows open. Anyway, you guys get the point I'm sure.

Anyway, I don't want to derail this thread any further, but I just wanted to make a point.

If AMD has managed to bring quad fire scaling up to the level of normal crossfire, it will be impressive whether or not many people use it or not.

These cards are all about excess and using two of these monsters is in keeping with that. It will also be a win in this bracket as Nvidia's quad scaling is awful.

How is tri-scaling by the way? I'd like to see benches of a 6990 and 69x0 (whatever GPU the 6990 ends up using). I'd consider a third 5870 if scaling was good, but I think AMD falls apart after two GPU's with the 5xxx series and below. I have to wonder what voodoo they worked on the 6xxx cards. I wonder if it's a hardware/GPU change or just software? If it is a software/driver thing, maybe the 5xxx cards will see improvement eventually too, much like the new AA mode eventually made it to the 5xxx cards.