Official GTX 590 Review Thread (23 reviews at this time)

[Keysplayr]

sweclockers card was @ 1,025 V when it exploded, and with asus putting a big sticker with there voltage tweak logo on the card.....

Must be a great adventure installing nv drivers.

And what did he use for stability testing I wonder. Furmark?
Don't worry sweetums. Retail cards selling today will not have this worry.

 

[MrK6]

And what did he use for stability testing I wonder. Furmark?
Don't worry sweetums. Retail cards selling today will not have this worry.

No, they just have this problem: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037022552&postcount=201

Looks like NVIDIA might have sacrificed too much trying to make the card quieter. Unfortunately, launch reviews don't show the quality of the part or how long it will last. It's only months or years later that we find out about major quality and stability issues that definitely impact the value of the product (a la the 8800 series solder fiasco).

 

[insurgent]

Funny how some people are now embracing acoustics and thermals because the 590 is not faster. And the drivers... lol at the drivers.

 

[Outrage]

And what did he use for stability testing I wonder. Furmark?
Don't worry sweetums. Retail cards selling today will not have this worry.

I would worry for the next driver update, aint this the 2'nd time in about a year they have managed to put out a driver killing cards.

 

[Keysplayr]

No, they just have this problem: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037022552&postcount=201

Looks like NVIDIA might have sacrificed too much trying to make the card quieter. Unfortunately, launch reviews don't show the quality of the part or how long it will last. It's only months or years later that we find out about major quality and stability issues that definitely impact the value of the product (a la the 8800 series solder fiasco).

Nice try though. This card, whether you want to hear it or not, is an engineering marvel. Runs mid 80's under load and hums the fans at 50%.
Look man, you should really end trying to capitalize on this too much. I could see a little bit, like "Haha look at the 590 burn up" but then you'd think you would come to realize that this isn't the norm. Reviewers and testers took it too far. The 267.84's are out and has enhanced protection like the retail cards should use.
I know I can't make you hate less, just make it a bit less obvious. Kudos.

 

[Keysplayr]

I would worry for the next driver update, aint this the 2'nd time in about a year they have managed to put out a driver killing cards.

Testing... testing... Is this thing on?.....

 

[Keysplayr]

Funny how some people are now embracing acoustics and thermals because the 590 is not faster. And the drivers... lol at the drivers.

Oh it's not funny at all. In fact, that sarcasm should be outlawed by now. Funny this and funny that.

Well, what did you expect after the last 2 years AMD fans have been preaching how important noise and power consumption are. You'll see now that it wasn't really that big a deal. Shhhh.. Watch...

Ok ladies and jellybeans. Off to play some 3DSurround Crysis2. TTYL.

 

[Outrage]

Testing... testing... Is this thing on?.....

Ohh thats to bad, did your 590 also fry?

 

[Grooveriding]

I can't remember ever seeing a launch where this many cards failed right out the gate on so many reviewers. And let's be logical here. These reviewers are not giving the 590 some sort of special treatment they don't give other new cards they get to review.

They're doing the same thing they do with every card they review. And a remarkable number of them have had the card blown up under the stress of overclocking.

Decent card, it's a little slower than a 6990 where it counts, in intensive games and at eyefinity/surround gaming. But is reasonable on acoustics.

But if I were in the market right now for a card like this, you can be bloody sure I'd be intending to overclock it and maybe overvoltage it.

With this many cards blowing up on day one there is no way I would risk $750 on one of these time bombs. Just not worth the risk.

Especially with a slightly cheaper and faster 6990 without a day one resume of having components on the card incinerate leaving you with a $750 paperweight rma hassle.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Gaia, just for a moment, pretend we like each other. So that we don't have to have a diametrically opposed conversation. -Thanks.

I've nothing personal against you.

But you have a job or hobby or function or whatever you call it and that limits a bit your options.

I have very few doubts some of your posts would be quite different or not even exist if it wasn't for that. I can be mistaken though.

Still my question wasn't inflammatory and seems perfectly reasonable.

Your answer seems an answer for the sake of having to answer.

 

[Silverforce11]

After reading a lot of reviews, game wise at 2560 res, the 6990 is in the lead by around 10%. Including older games where both cards get 100+ fps is where the 590 closes the gap to around 5%. IMO, the 6990 is a clear winner in games that matter which is able to stress these cards. This isn't surprising since we knew the core clocks. The 590 is essentially a gtx570 SLI. You can also cherry pick to make the 570 SLI appear even with the 6990, but we all know its not.

Given the target market towards enthusiasts, as others have mentioned, only a few factors influence buyers:
1. 2560 res and multi screen performance.
2. Overclocking potential

Noise matter but not as critical. People spending that much on a rig will have water cooling setups as these cards vent a lot of heat into the case, limiting the overclock on other hardware.

Edit: as for the dead cards, i'm going to give NV benefit of doubt and assume they just messed up shipping drivers without proper protection. If this continues to happen with the new driver then its a huge problem, otherwise its not a factor.

Edit 2: The short PCB and lower acoustics definitely has a big drawback: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/825-4/dossier-nvidia-repond-amd-avec-geforce-gtx-590.html
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/747-22/maj-dossier-cartes-graphiques-degagement-thermique.html
compare the surrounding temps as well as the pcb temps, at 112C its going to cause a lot of component stress. This card definitely needs water cooling, period.

 

[96Firebird]

Funny how some people are now embracing acoustics and thermals because the 590 is not faster. And the drivers... lol at the drivers.

Kinda like how people praised the 5870 after the hotter, noisier, yet faster GTX 480 was released?

So... GTX 480 was blasted for being faster, yet louder and ran hotter.

So... The HD 6990 should be blasted for being faster, yet louder and hotter.

 

[yh125d]

Kinda like how people praised the 5870 after the hotter, noisier, yet faster GTX 480 was released?

So... GTX 480 was blasted for being faster, yet louder and ran hotter.

So... The HD 6990 should be blasted for being faster, yet louder and hotter.

He's not saying it's not fair to blast the 6990 for being louder and hotter, but that back then a lot of people sure didn't seem to think it was fair for the 480 to be blasted.



Countless times we saw "the only people who will buy a 480 are enthusiasts, and they dont care about noise or power anyways"

 

[Silverforce11]

Single card one GPU is not targeted at enthusiasts. Given the price of a 6950/70 its well affordable and could be considered upper mainstream. Dual GPU and CF/SLI high end cards have always been for enthusiasts.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Kinda like how people praised the 5870 after the hotter, noisier, yet faster GTX 480 was released?

So... GTX 480 was blasted for being faster, yet louder and ran hotter.

So... The HD 6990 should be blasted for being faster, yet louder and hotter.

The GTX480 was blasted for costing more, being louder, running hotter (which isn't that important) and consume much more power. While it was faster it also came 6 months later.

The 6990 is indeed louder, but doesn't consume more power, didn't launch later, cost the around the same and it is faster. And it is the fastest card in the market, something the GTX480 wasn't.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I can't remember ever seeing a launch where this many cards failed right out the gate on so many reviewers. And let's be logical here. These reviewers are not giving the 590 some sort of special treatment they don't give other new cards they get to review.

They're doing the same thing they do with every card they review. And a remarkable number of them have had the card blown up under the stress of overclocking.

Decent card, it's a little slower than a 6990 where it counts, in intensive games and at eyefinity/surround gaming. But is reasonable on acoustics.

But if I were in the market right now for a card like this, you can be bloody sure I'd be intending to overclock it and maybe overvoltage it.

With this many cards blowing up on day one there is no way I would risk $750 on one of these time bombs. Just not worth the risk.

Especially with a slightly cheaper and faster 6990 without a day one resume of having components on the card incinerate leaving you with a $750 paperweight rma hassle.

Yup, this is pretty much what I said a few pages back. These reviewers did standard testing like they would run on any other card. GTX590's are failing at an alarming rate when overclocked. This is an enthusiast part, it should be built like a tank for what it costs.

And as the news is coming out regarding these failures, we get people telling us that no one will overvolt and overclock this part. There is obviously an issue here. Would you drop $700+ on this thing? I certainly wouldn't.

 

[MrK6]

Nice try though. This card, whether you want to hear it or not, is an engineering marvel. Runs mid 80's under load and hums the fans at 50%.

Did I not just post a picture that showed the contrary? There's more to heat output than GPU temps, as the pictures show. But if you stay as ambiguous as possible, I suppose no one would call you out on it, right? I suppose NVIDIA is making if awfully difficult to be a fanboy nowadays.

Look man, you should really end trying to capitalize on this too much. I could see a little bit, like "Haha look at the 590 burn up" but then you'd think you would come to realize that this isn't the norm. Reviewers and testers took it too far. The 267.84's are out and has enhanced protection like the retail cards should use.
I know I can't make you hate less, just make it a bit less obvious. Kudos.

Who's taking it as a personal crusade to personally attack anyone that posts something negative about the GTX 590? Your last few posts were strictly accosting those that did or just posting derailments for the sake of posting. If you'd like to answer my proposed questions go right ahead, but keep it civil and act like an adult.

 

[96Firebird]

He's not saying it's not fair to blast the 6990 for being louder and hotter, but that back then a lot of people sure didn't seem to think it was fair for the 480 to be blasted.



Countless times we saw "the only people who will buy a 480 are enthusiasts, and they dont care about noise or power anyways"

And I'm sure many of the people that praise the 6990 here are the ones who were blasting the GTX 480... Thats all I'm saying, you can judge those people as you'd like. I tend to call them hypocrites.

And it hardly matters when a card is released, its a video card. Its not time-sensitive material...

 

[TerabyteX]

Nice try though. This card, whether you want to hear it or not, is an engineering marvel. Runs mid 80's under load and hums the fans at 50%.
Look man, you should really end trying to capitalize on this too much. I could see a little bit, like "Haha look at the 590 burn up" but then you'd think you would come to realize that this isn't the norm. Reviewers and testers took it too far. The 267.84's are out and has enhanced protection like the retail cards should use.
I know I can't make you hate less, just make it a bit less obvious. Kudos.

Ahem.... Testing.... testing... Is this thing on?

I've nothing personal against you.

But you have a job or hobby or function or whatever you call it and that limits a bit your options.

I have very few doubts some of your posts would be quite different or not even exist if it wasn't for that. I can be mistaken though.

Still my question wasn't inflammatory and seems perfectly reasonable.

Your answer seems an answer for the sake of having to answer.

Yeah, you are totally right. He tries to downplay the issue of the burning GTX 590 cards, it is a serious issue. Hardware reviewers who are experts in overclocking, had issues with over 5 GTX 590 cards, could you imagine the boom when end users try to overclock the card with a slight bump in voltage? Lots of dead GTX 590. The issue here is that a graphic card that costs over $700 is for an enthusiast market, people who loves to tweak, overclock and extract every once of performance from their expensive toys. But buying a single GTX 590 and leaving it at stock because of the issues that it may arise shows that the GTX 590 isn't the best option for enthusiast, better off buying an GTX 570 SLI and overclock it or buying an HD 6950 CF, unlock it and overclock the hell out of them.

 

[Firestorm007]

Nice try though. This card, whether you want to hear it or not, is an engineering marvel. Runs mid 80's under load and hums the fans at 50%.
Look man, you should really end trying to capitalize on this too much. I could see a little bit, like "Haha look at the 590 burn up" but then you'd think you would come to realize that this isn't the norm. Reviewers and testers took it too far. The 267.84's are out and has enhanced protection like the retail cards should use.
I know I can't make you hate less, just make it a bit less obvious. Kudos.

Engineering Marvel? Nice try...Don't push so hard. It's a nice card and offers some real mad performance, but let's keep it real ok?

 

[SlowSpyder]

And I'm sure many of the people that praise the 6990 here are the ones who were blasting the GTX 480... Thats all I'm saying, you can judge those people as you'd like. I tend to call them hypocrites.

And it hardly matters when a card is released, its a video card. Its not time-sensitive material...

It's time sensitive to enthusiasts. I wonder how many people bought a 5850/5870 or 5970 waiting for Fermi. Then it came later, was slower than AMD's fastest card, hotter, louder, etc.

I certainly would not praise the 6990, that noise would be unacceptable to me. I have two Vapor-X 5870's, they are very quiet, which I like. But what would you rather have after dropping $700+ on a card, a loud card that overclocks and trucks along? Or would you rather have a card that fails and is a fire hazard when overclocked?

I cannot remember any launch having this many failures. Not even close.

 

[Silverforce11]

If 590s are still dying with the new drivers, its a major issue. Otherwise a minor flop on sending crap drivers out. Wait and see.

 

[96Firebird]

But what would you rather have after dropping $700+ on a card, a loud card that overclocks and trucks along? Or would you rather have a card that fails and is a fire hazard when overclocked?

I cannot remember any launch having this many failures. Not even close.

I'd rather have the card that keeps it's warranty after overclocking.

 

[3DVagabond]

Me let it go? I'm not the one spreading FUD. But you're right I am crazy for trying to defend a Nvidia card in this forum.

Don't worry, the green cavalry has arrived.

That's what the link says.
i used 267.71 .. i got no warning from Nvidia although i knew that there is an earlier set that also worked,

When i started overclocking mine, i noticed the temps start to spike around 690MHz and the vRAM began to heat up. i left my voltage and fan profile at stock also.

Testing... testing... Is this thing on?.....

Good question. You really need to stop believing everything nVidia tells you. They lie at times. See apoppin's quote above.

You pick the worst case though (1.2V) and spin away with it.

 

[insurgent]

Oh it's not funny at all. In fact, that sarcasm should be outlawed by now. Funny this and funny that.

Well, what did you expect after the last 2 years AMD fans have been preaching how important noise and power consumption are. You'll see now that it wasn't really that big a deal. Shhhh.. Watch...

Ok ladies and jellybeans. Off to play some 3DSurround Crysis2. TTYL.

But you get good acoustics and thermals from the lower models, the halo product isn't about noise but about performance, unless you're on the losing side