AMD Radeon HD 6990 "Antilles" Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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AMD Radeon HD 6990 "Antilles" Video Card Review - The Radeon HD 6990 is being launched today, and we have full coverage of specifications and our gameplay experiences compared to several high-end dual-GPU solutions out there. If you are looking for a single video card package that packs a punch and provides headroom for hardware enthusiasts, this is a solid solution.
 
Wow, that article's been ready to go for ages, hasn't it? :)
Having a good ole' read...
 
yeah $649 is what I was thinking for this card as $699 just isn't good based on 6970 prices.
 
Looks like the 6970 crossfire solution beats out the 6990 and 580 SLI in raw performance most times AND bang for buck.
 
Thanks as always, el jefe.

<sigh> Not crazy about that MSRP, but I suppose I'm not surprised either. Flip side, until the GTX 590 actually manifests (and possibly even then) this is it for single-card choices.
 
Will there be a 2x6990/580 quad SLI test in the future to push things up to the insane 7680x1600 resolution, or to try and max out AA at 5760x1200?
 
Nice review, thanks!
Like I suspected they priced this beast to make buying a pair of the single card solutions a more attractive option. Those people who got in on the unlockable 6950s@$230 deal and bought a pair of em got the best performance/value deal so far.

DanNeely said:
Will there be a 2x6990/580 quad SLI test in the future to push things up to the insane 7680x1600 resolution, or to try and max out AA at 5760x1200?
Click to expand...

They'll need to make sure they have a flux capacitor to generate the 1.21 gigawatts required to power them all. :D
 
I'm gonna wait for the 590 and see what it does for pricing. I was ready to jump $599, but @ $700 idk.
 
Thanks again for the great review, it was a fantastic read and pretty much gives me flash backs of the 5870 and 5970 comparisons
 
Throwing the bios switch to position #1 is saved for another day?
 
Totally thought this thing was going to get the gold award for sure, but figured this would be like the last dual GPU card they had. Not too crazy about exhausting hot exhaust air back into the case either.... But it does provide max cooling to each GPU in this setup.

Ill be sticking to my GTX 580 SLI plan. But a very impressive single card offering though thats for sure!
 
Great review. Looks like I may be getting 2x6950s or just wait til next gen.
 
Good short review. OC tests would have been VERY informative.

THANK-YOU for a Hi-Res eyefinity review!

The 6990 at stock "High" setting is within spitting distance in performance of a 6970 xcf config at 59 watts less due to slightly lower settings. OC tests would have been revealing here.

What is interesting is the almost 200 watts less than the SLI 580's, and it's competitive in terms of performance. What type of power is the 590 going to draw, and what kind of engineering will be done to cool a 590 (besides water)?

Price wise, yeah it's what I was thinking, you pay a premium for the fastest card. No surprise there. For $60 difference after spending $700... pffft I'd wager the convenience facter easily can make up the $60.

Y
 
Now give me the ability to change actual settings and create profiles from within the CCC and SOLD.

I hate CAPs, I hate them, I hate them.
 
good review.

I was looking at some of benches from Anand and it was surprising seeing the 6950 CF beat the 6990 in quite a few games. Alot of them they were neck and neck.

The 6990 seems more comparable to 6950 CF rather than 6970 CF.
 
Thank you Hard OCP for testing at a reasonable resolution for these high end cards.
 
Statistical analysis

Double weighted minimums
HD6970 Crossfire: 5000
HD6990: 1046.4 + 962.0 + 909.0 + 902.9 + 831.5 = 4651.8
GTX570 SLI: 1134.4 + 787.0 + 927.4 + 908.2 + 724.7 = 4481.7
GTX580 SLI: 1593.6 + 906.7 + 1073.5 + 1088.0 + 912.0 = 5573.8

Nil weighted minimums
HD6970 Crossfire: 5000
HD6990: 963.9 + 932.1 + 948.2 + 950.7 + 968.2 = 4763.1
GTX570 SLI: 1078.7 + 719.4 + 907.1 + 1030.6 + 722.9 = 4458.7
GTX580 SLI: 1363.9 + 819.8 + 1095.0 + 1198.6 + 914.0 = 5391.3


Versus HD6970 Crossfire [power results assume 83% efficiency, 50W Delta-CPU(DC) at game load]

HD6990: 0.941x at 31W idle, 293W load, 49/89C
HD6970 Crossfire: 1.000x at 27W idle, 342W load, 41/89C
GTX570 SLI: 0.894x at 54W idle, 391W load, 43/85C
GTX580 SLI: 1.097x at 65W idle, 457W load, 46/90C
 
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To the [H] review crew:

Over the years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the review style you guys have used to compare graphic cards based on the gameplay experience they provide. There are dozens and dozens of sites performing apples to apples comparisons against the same cards you guys review, there is only one hardware site comparing for highest playable settings. Please spend your valuable time doing productive things that expand the collective knowledge of video cards.

Anyway, it was a good review, thanks. The price is out of line, it's not the bang for the buck champ that the 6950 is.
 
Yay, thanks for the review! :) Question from this snippet of the review:

In every game we played the GeForce GTX 580 SLI did give us the highest framerates. Beyond that though, GTX 580 SLI provided the smoothest gameplay. There was less choppiness with SLI and it seemed lower framerates felt smoother on GTX 580 SLI than it did with 6990 or 6970 CFX.
Click to expand...

Can someone explain to me why there is less choppiness on the SLI configuration, despite both configurations having comparable frame rates? And why do lower frame rates feel smoother on the SLI setup?
 
Thanks for the review.

I have to say that as a whole it's more than a bit disappointing. Unless this $699 figure is the "early adopter tax" that will drop to $599 when the GTX 590 hits, there's virtually no reason to choose this over crossfired 6970's.

....unless, the overclocking capabilities really are as impressive as AMD seems to want us to think. Can we assume that the [H] will be posting a follow-up review of the OCed 6990?

(EDIT: Already answered of course. Thanks again [H].)
 
Dual cards cost more than two of their single card counterparts. I don't see why anyone is surprised by this, it's always been the case.
 
Decent card, Price not so much. I would definitely like to see the overclocked review and am happy to see that the broken 5800 crossfire scaling that plagued the 5970 doesn't affect this card. Be interesting to see a quad CFX review as well.

Bring on the GTX 590 Nvidia yout move (knock king over... or CHECKMATE!) :)
 
yimingwuzere said:
5970 was cheaper than 2 5870s.
Click to expand...

Yup. The 5870/50 held their value and even increased it for quite some time because of Nvidia's struggles to bring the GTX480 to market. The subsequent disappointment at temperatures and power consumption of Fermi cemented the high prices of the 5870/5850.
 
The 5970 wasn't two 5870s though. Near as makes no difference it was two 5850s.
As for the 4870X2, that's not how it happened here in the UK. The increase was very marginal, but here it was about £180 for a 4870, and about £375-£390 for a 4870X2.
 
Unfortunately for me, I couldn't gain much from that review as i'm interested in 1920x1080 resolutions on a 120hz screen.
 
Topaz said:
Thanks for the review.

I have to say that as a whole it's more than a bit disappointing. Unless this $699 figure is the "early adopter tax" that will drop to $599 when the GTX 590 hits, there's virtually no reason to choose this over crossfired 6970's.

....unless, the overclocking capabilities really are as impressive as AMD seems to want us to think. Can we assume that the [H] will be posting a follow-up review of the OCed 6990?

(EDIT: Already answered of course. Thanks again [H].)
Click to expand...

For cards this expensive, it's about damn time they introduced twin fans on reference designs at this price point. Would a few $ more really make much difference if your spending that much cash anyways?
 
damn hopes crushed with all the talking in the review about the bios switch and not even one test done with it.. now i'm going to have to start searching all the crappy review sites to see if anyone actually tested it.. maybe i better start drinking before doing that..
 
Man, I am just hoping this will affect 580 prices. But it will probably most likely only affect 570 prices.
 
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