Official HD6990 Review Thread (*updated* with 21 reviews at this time)

[badb0y]

Pretty crappy in x-fire with 2 6990's too.
Those AMD slides lie!

I am disappoint.

 

[Powermoloch]

sexy

 

[mnewsham]

Pretty crappy in x-fire with 2 6990's too.
Those AMD slides lie!

Groove has a thread about it.

 

[badb0y]

Actually looking at Far Cry it looks like there is a bottleneck somewhere... Crysis is disappoint me though

 

[sandorski]

Fortunately I'm not in the Market for this type of card. The only way this makes sense is if you want to Quad XFire and have limited space. Might wanna put your PC in a closet if that's what you want to do.

Unless Drivers can change things, looks to me like AMD should have just decided to skip this Generation of Dual GPU cards.

 

[mnewsham]

Unless Drivers can change things, looks to me like AMD should have just decided to skip this Generation of Dual GPU cards.

And lose out in all the money? why?

 

[happy medium]

but with the 6990 getting closer to the limits that doesn't leave much headroom for the 590. The performance difference is going to come down to driver support on a per game basis. Bank on it!

No I disagree. The gtx590 can use all the power it wants. The ANand review had the 6990 using 500 watts.
It will come down to who has the best cooler and sli/x-fire drivers.

 

[sandorski]

And lose out in all the money? why?

I don't think they'll sell many, not that they would even if it was Fastest, but Sales are likely to be further suppressed given these results.

 

[happy medium]

Groove has a thread about it.

I read that review, it totally sucked,thats why I didn't add it to the OP.:thumbsdown:


This should not be the policy of the person who is managing a stickied thread.

Expectations are that you add review links to the OP. That's it.

You can, of course, discuss the merits of the reviews as you see fit as a matter of discussion within the thread.

But that is a seperate responsibility from that of dispositioning your duties as manager a stickied thread.

Moderator Idontcare

 

[badb0y]

It will come down to who has the best cooler and sli/x-fire drivers.

Pretty much this, this time no one can even bring up the power consumption or noise .

 

[happy medium]

Actually looking at Far Cry it looks like there is a bottleneck somewhere... Crysis is disappoint me though

They used a intel 990 cpu @ 4 ghz! bottleneck? naaa.

 

[badb0y]

They used a intel 990 cpu @ 4 ghz! bottleneck? naaa.

Something has to be all those numbers come and stop at the same spot.

 

[mnewsham]

I read that review, it totally sucked,thats why I didn't add it to the OP.:thumbsdown:

Your job is to post reviews not decide which are good or bad

 

[mnewsham]

I don't think they'll sell many, not that they would even if it was Fastest, but Sales are likely to be further suppressed given these results.

They will sell, they always do.

 

[happy medium]

Pretty much this, this time no one can even bring up the power consumption or noise .

Exactly, whichever card can stay under 90c while factory overclocked (or turbo button) wins.:thumbsup:

 

[happy medium]

Your job is to post reviews not decide which are good or bad

Not when the review is so bad that 6970 crossfire is losing to a underclocked 6990 in some noname site. Thats misinformation and wrong.:thumbsdown:

 

[mnewsham]

Not when the review is so bad that 6970 crossfire is losing to a underclocked 6990 in some noname site. Thats misinformation and wrong.:thumbsdown:

Im sorry, you werent there to test it and dont know what happened or what the results were, it is a review just post it up. There is nothing saying that it wasnt falsified or anything BUT you dont know that and cant pass judgment on it.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

No I disagree. The gtx590 can use all the power it wants. The ANand review had the 6990 using 500 watts.
It will come down to who has the best cooler and sli/x-fire drivers.

The 6990 already looks like the most power hungry dual GPU card released. Nvidia is going to have to turn around and make the 590 the most power hungry card released to best the 6990's performance. That is my main point.

Also my other point still stands. Since the 6990 uses more power than previous dual-GPU cards, there is less headroom available. They simply can't just use all the power they want. There is a limit in there somewhere. These niche cards are becoming even more niche.

 

[badb0y]

The 6990 already looks like the most power hungry dual GPU card released. Nvidia is going to have to turn around and make the 590 the most power hungry card released to best the 6990's performance. That is my main point.

Also my other point still stands. Since the 6990 uses more power than previous dual-GPU cards, there is less headroom available. They simply can't just use all the power they want. There is a limit in there somewhere. These niche cards are becoming even more niche.

As far as I can tell, the only limit seems to be how well you can cool your card, nVidia definitely has a tougher mountain to climb in that respect but I don't think it's impossible.

I think it may end up a wash this round though.

 

[happy medium]

:thumbsup:

Im sorry, you werent there to test it and dont know what happened or what the results were, it is a review just post it up. There is nothing saying that it wasnt falsified or anything BUT you dont know that and cant pass judgment on it.

Here is a much better 6990 X-fire review from techpowerup.:thumbsup:

Edit: and performance is not good.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/Radeon_HD_6990_CrossFire/

 

[happy medium]

There is a limit in there somewhere.

No there is not, not according to the pci-e spec people. Its in the Anand review.
I'm sure the gtx590 will draw over 500 watts when overclocked.
I guess we will wait and see.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

As far as I can tell, the only limit seems to be how well you can cool your card, nVidia definitely has a tougher mountain to climb in that respect but I don't think it's impossible.

I think it may end up a wash this round though.

Cooling is important. But there is a limit - a physical/electrical limit. Since the 6990 is using more of that limit than any previous card, there is less headroom available. That is fact. It can be debated just how much headroom there actually is, but the fact there is less is not refutable.

These cards' performance is simply going to be limited on just how the manufacturer's limit the power consumption. Power and performance are directly related here, and Nvidia does have its work cut out since per-GPU GF110 seem to use more power than Cayman.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

No there is not, not according to the pci-e spec people. Its in the Anand review.
I'm sure the gtx590 will draw over 500 watts when overclocked.
I guess we will wait and see.

Yes, there is. Now if you stop quoting a single sentence out of my post you would understand the point I was making. That sentence works in context with everything else I said. So I advise you read it.

 

[badb0y]

Cooling is important. But there is a limit - a physical/electrical limit. Since the 6990 is using more of that limit than any previous card, there is less headroom available. That is fact. It can be debated just how much headroom there actually is, but the fact there is less is not refutable.

These cards' performance is simply going to be limited on just how the manufacturer's limit the power consumption. Power and performance are directly related here, and Nvidia does have its work cut out since per-GPU GF110 seem to use more power than Cayman.

Definitely but these cards are ulta-highend cards so nVidia can go with a variety of different exotic coolers to attain it's goal, the first one that comes to my mind is a triple slot cooler.

 

[happy medium]

Yes, there is. Now if you stop quoting a single sentence out of my post you would understand the point I was making. That sentence works in context with everything else I said. So I advise you read it.

Ok what is it then? Tell me what is the limits in watts?

A single 8 pin connector can give over 560 watts on its own, before it starts to melt.
The pci-e slot will only give 75 watts.