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

[B2BigAl]

So will a Lamborghini

Wow, what a terrible analogy.

Anyways, just to pile on, this card makes no sense. Even for the e-penis club willing to shell out a small fortune for the latest and greatest, 2 x 6970 makes more sense, or 2 x 580 for that matter.

 

[funkydmunky]

"At that price, the total cost for 6970 CrossFireX comes to $640; a $60 savings compared to the better performing Radeon HD 6990."
Where is the editor (as usual)

 

[XacTactX]

"At that price, the total cost for 6970 CrossFireX comes to $640; a $60 savings compared to the better performing Radeon HD 6990."
Where is the editor (as usual)

Seriously. This is a chronic issue with [H]'s reviews. Kyle doesn't seem to proof-read the articles. The line saying Editor for all of the reviews might as well be taken off.

 

[Power5]

What I really don't understand is...

Okay, so people want to be able to use this on a Mobo with only 1 pci-e slot for a smaller form factor build. Problem is, almost any case that fits ONLY an Matx board with only 1 pci-e slot will not have the 12" required to fit this card. Therefore that argument is not valid and should not command the higher premium required for a niche card. If people are buying an Matx board to fit in a case that would normally fit a standard atx mobo then....? Also...a very large portion of Mid Tower cases that fit only matx and atx mobos will probably not have the required room for a 12" long card either. So, to use this card you are buying a full tower. Why would you get a full tower then put in a matx mobo when an atx mobo can be had for the same price or cheaper for the same performance but with two or more pci-e slots. If you are already doing these two steps anyway then why not get the two cards that will be faster than the one?

It is just a high end video card, meaning it should follow the rules set forth by earlier examples like the 4870x2 and 5970 where it is actually cheaper to get the single card solution even if it is not as fast and because it isn't as fast.

Nvidia's fastest single slot card is a GTX580 right now and for the last few months. Why didn't they set the price of it at $800 when it launched? I mean SLI 570's is faster than a 580...doesn't really matter how many GPUs are on the video card...fastest single card offering from each camp is just that.

 

[amdgamer]

Pass, my 1000 AMD shares cry because no profit from this product.

Well, Halo products tend to be more about improving brand image rather than trying to turn a huge profit. For years, the Dudge Viper was the halo product for Dodge. FIAT the new owners have decided to shut down production of it since it never turned a profit. At $700 a card, I think us AMD shareholders can at least sleep at night knowing that AMD won't push enough volume to turn huge profits, but won't be losing money either.

Wow, what a terrible analogy.

Anyways, just to pile on, this card makes no sense. Even for the e-penis club willing to shell out a small fortune for the latest and greatest, 2 x 6970 makes more sense, or 2 x 580 for that matter.

Antilles makes no sense for many people out there, but makes perfect sense for a small niche market. What other single video card on the market can do 5 display Eyefinity, or allow an easy option to go Quadfire? For others, they just want something to tweak and play around with, and this card appears to give those people the bells and whistles needed to keep them happy. Then there are also a few who might not have a motherboard with enough free slots to do a CFX setup. We pretty much know nVidia will be getting into the dual GPU video card market, so this card must make sense for some people out there.

 

[heatlesssun]

Nice card. The issue I have with AMD cards at the moment is lack of 3D support. Of course the [H] crew loves multi-monitor as do I but have zero interest in 3D which is a shame. 3D is one feature that's getting a good deal of support on the PC these days and while I understand a lot of people don't like it it's something that if you don't like and are a PC gamer you're losing some differentiating value out of PC gaming over consoles at the moment.

One thing I do hate about these dual-GPU solutions is that they tend to come out MONTHS after their single base cards so their life cycle is cut short until the next gen and they carry a high price that's never equal to the price performance ratio of single GPU multi-card solutions. The price doesn't bother as much as their release months after single GPU flagship cards. I would have no problem buying these types of cards at launch of the flashship single GPU cards, but I won't months after.

To me these cards are probably best for these folks:

1. Don't want/can't spare two PCIe slots
2. Quad GPU once again in space constrained situations

I guess the nVidia GTX 590 is supposed to be some very special part or something. Would be interesting to see what a pair of those could do but I imagine the power cost would be enormous.

 

[Power5]

....At $700 a card, I think us AMD shareholders can at least sleep at night knowing that AMD won't push enough volume to turn huge profits, but won't be losing money either......

You think they are turning a decent profit and not losing money? At least they have not spent a lot on advertising for this card. I am pretty sure they have spent a lot of money on R&D to make this card happen though. Probably took about as much R&D to make this card as the other cards they have for sale. So if they sell these in less quantities then they are relying on the mainstream (6850 and 6870) and high end (6950 and 6970) cards to make up for the losses on the 6990 development cost.

If the OCUK store has 75% of the stock of cards for for Europe at launch which is only what?, 60 cards? That is not even close to a volume product. That is a tiny niche product like the Dodge Viper. You know what though...the Viper may have been expensive but it was pretty cheap for the performance it provided. The 6990 does not provide the performance it's price tag promises.

 

[Deleted member 82943]

i think the tech that went into making this card work will improve future revisions like the 7xxx and perhaps also lead to better scaling

 

[cannondale06]

I think at this point its best for AMD and Nvidia to just concentrate on single gpu cards for the top end. sticking two high end gpus on a single card is not really feasible any longer from a heat, power consumption, and noise level. and that's even with gimping the performance straight from the factory. if a single gpu card cant get the job done then of course a user can decide to do crossfire/sli themselves.

 

[XacTactX]

I think at this point its best for AMD and Nvidia to just concentrate on single gpu cards for the top end. sticking two high end gpus on a single card is not really feasible any longer from a heat, power consumption, and noise level. and that's even with gimping the performance straight from the factory. if a single gpu card cant get the job done then of course a user can decide to do crossfire/sli themselves.

QFT +1.

If they put every dollar spent on the 6990 toward hiring driver software engineers to improve CrossFire scaling and AMD driver stability I'd say they'd be in better shape than having a $700 ultra-premium behemoth.

EDIT: By CF scaling I mean that some games have negative or neutral scaling.

 

[Nuby1Canuby]

If this card comes with only 1 active miniDP to DVI adapter, won't you have to buy another active miniDP to DVI adapter, to run 3 DVI monitors for Eyefinity gaming?

 

[BallerX]

No way do I believe that 90c is healthy at all. Sounds like a case of you better water cool that.

 

[AtkinS]

No way do I believe that 90c is healthy at all. Sounds like a case of you better water cool that.

say that to every gfx, they all cuddles round the 80 number.
5850, 78C
stock I7 990X cuddles around the cute 75C number in many OEM builds, passive cards do 110C, and in fact no temperature protection goes into play before 115-120C on older cards. GTX260/4870 and below as far as I know.
the new cards throttle here and there, loads of advanced powerconsumtion features if temperature gets around 100 to keep it there.

 

[g-money]

say that to every gfx, they all cuddles round the 80 number.

Sure, this is only a true statement because for some reason I cannot understand, reviewers don't crank the fan up past the stock speed settings. Any of those cards will run much cooler, at least 10 degrees centigrade less, with the fan turned up. But then you get into noise issues.

This card actually manages power usage and temperatures for what it is very well. If performance & price isn't the limiting factor, this card wins of crossfireX in efficiency.

I also believe that drivers will improve this cards performance by at least 5%. If you added that to the reviews right now -- it would look far better.

 

[That's_Corporate]

Wow, what a terrible analogy.

How? Both are focused products in their respective markets and are not built for the masses. Both make little sacrifices in the quest for the greatest performance possible.

Buying a 6990 and "complaining" about about the fact it's $700 and generates more noise than your current card is exactly the same as buying an Italian supercar and whining about the price and the fuel consumption.

And the funny thing is, the people who do complain about these things, are never the people that actually have the capacity to purchase them.

 

[FrgMstr]

"At that price, the total cost for 6970 CrossFireX comes to $640; a $60 savings compared to the better performing Radeon HD 6990."
Where is the editor (as usual)

Click the email the editor button on every page if you would like a bit quicker attention. Sorry for our lacking editing. We are hardware guys, not English majors. We miss something every few THOUSAND words. Sorry for that.

 

[Sottilde]

Looking forward to the continuation of this review the the AUSUM (what an awful name) switch on and some overclocking.

I agree with the above posters that the 6990 doesn't really make sense compared to 2x 6950 unlocked or 2x 6970. But I would love to see 2x 6990 running 6x Eyefinity or 3x Eyefinity 3D!

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Sure, this is only a true statement because for some reason I cannot understand, reviewers don't crank the fan up past the stock speed settings. Any of those cards will run much cooler, at least 10 degrees centigrade less, with the fan turned up. But then you get into noise issues.

This card actually manages power usage and temperatures for what it is very well. If performance & price isn't the limiting factor, this card wins of crossfireX in efficiency.

I also believe that drivers will improve this cards performance by at least 5%. If you added that to the reviews right now -- it would look far better.

because the whole point of reviewing a card is to review it based on what it comes with out of the box and not what it does by changing the fan speed. theres a reason manufactures use fan profiles like they do because they know what the cards can and can't run at. so they have to find a balancing point of cooling and noise. 80C isn't going to kill a card. just ask some of us that run GPU's 24/7 year after year at 80C+ with F@H.

 

[amdgamer]

because the whole point of reviewing a card is to review it based on what it comes with out of the box and not what it does by changing the fan speed. theres a reason manufactures use fan profiles like they do because they know what the cards can and can't run at. so they have to find a balancing point of cooling and noise. 80C isn't going to kill a card. just ask some of us that run GPU's 24/7 year after year at 80C+ with F@H.

Yup, and some of these same GPU's are running solidly in the 90's once summertime rolls around without a problem. That is with 24/7 operation too.

 

[Deleted member 82943]

dual 6990s get half the frames in Crysis 2 as Vega's quad 580 SLI rig gets.

 

[rmfa]

Any idea if my TX750w will handle a single 6990? What about the OC6990? I know the GTX580 does great in this system and I'm deciding if I need more power...

 

[chimera991]

How? Both are focused products in their respective markets and are not built for the masses. Both make little sacrifices in the quest for the greatest performance possible.

Buying a 6990 and "complaining" about about the fact it's $700 and generates more noise than your current card is exactly the same as buying an Italian supercar and whining about the price and the fuel consumption.

And the funny thing is, the people who do complain about these things, are never the people that actually have the capacity to purchase them.

It is a terrible analogy, the Lamborghini has an exotic sound, whether its a v10 or v12.
I'm damn sure 110% of the people who buy a 6990 DO NOT want a noisy card. I guess they can put up with it if they are all about the bleeding edge tech, but if there was a quieter version that 110% would buy that instead.

 

[That's_Corporate]

It is a terrible analogy, the Lamborghini has an exotic sound, whether its a v10 or v12.
I'm damn sure 110% of the people who buy a 6990 DO NOT want a noisy card. I guess they can put up with it if they are all about the bleeding edge tech, but if there was a quieter version that 110% would buy that instead.

Well duh.

I'm just saying that if you want an exotic supercar (high performance), but also want something quiet and refined AND also want that car to be easy on the wallet, then you clearly don't know squat about what it takes to actually engineer that car.

Same with people complaining about the fastest card in the world needing to be quieter and cheaper. Sure they could make it quieter by fitting an exotic cooler perhaps, but that would only make it more expensive. All three of those factors involve compromise: performance, heat (noise), cost. A manufacturer only has a limited amount of theoretical "tokens" to put into each category, not an unlimited amount. So if ATI focuses on all factors and has a total of 12 tokens, then they will have four in each. A relatively quiet and cool, mid-range performing card, for about $300. Instead, they put the majority of the tokens into performance, compromising noise and cost.

It's a good analogy because the same thing happens with cars. If you buy a Ferrari, don't expect it to be easy on the bank, or quiet inside or outside. All Ferrari cares about is how quick it is. If you buy a Rolls Royce, don't expect it to be blisteringly fast, or cheap to buy. And if you buy a Kia, don't expect it to chase down that Ferrari, or be as quiet inside as a Rolls Royce. If you want all three, go buy a Lexus or something similar, but it will be worse than the Kia, Ferrari, and Rolls Royce in at least one of those categories: Speed, refinement (quietness), and cost.

Oh, and regarding your statement of people buying a quieter version instead, I think you're completely incorrect. The purchasers of these cards want extreme performance and nothing else. They realize that a super-fast card is going to pump out a good amount of heat and fan noise, but they won't care because all they want is the fastest single card in the world and may every well aftermarket cool it anyways. So I don't think any, true, legitimate 6990 buyer would NOT purchase the card just because of a few db's. Armchair purchasers will say "oh I won't buy it because it's too loud", but they were never going to anyways because of the cost, as it's much easier to rationalize by finding excuses rather than make a big purchase. But for those people, that's what the 6970 is for. So whining about the 6990 costing too much or producing too much noise, is just you reaching for a product that's out of your demographic when the manufacturer did their market research.

 

[Shalafi]

Good review, rather enjoyed it. I was surprised about Crysis Warhead coming out of the mothballs for this review, but it did make a lot of sense to test it with the current hardware. I think the price point is definitely a little too high for what you get. I'm not really as worried as others are in this thread when it comes to temperatures on your GPU. All of the GPU's released in the last few years have had high temperatures. It's all about buying a really good case, spacing out your slots, and then putting a more than adequate cooling solution in your case.

Also don't forget about ambient temperatures. What's funny is that given our modern hardware and the temperatures they run, they can and have been used as space heaters in winter

One last thing, I think that this GPU will be an excellent buy once it rotates out of the 700+ price range down to the $500-$550ish price range.

 

[amdgamer]

Good review, rather enjoyed it. I was surprised about Crysis Warhead coming out of the mothballs for this review, but it did make a lot of sense to test it with the current hardware. I think the price point is definitely a little too high for what you get. I'm not really as worried as others are in this thread when it comes to temperatures on your GPU. All of the GPU's released in the last few years have had high temperatures. It's all about buying a really good case, spacing out your slots, and then putting a more than adequate cooling solution in your case.

Also don't forget about ambient temperatures. What's funny is that given our modern hardware and the temperatures they run, they can and have been used as space heaters in winter

One last thing, I think that this GPU will be an excellent buy once it rotates out of the 700+ price range down to the $500-$550ish price range.

What do you think the HardOCP folding team does! You gotta use all of that heat for something, and all those GPU clients act as a pretty nice space heater. Of course this works against you when summer rolls around, but you'll work through the sweat if you are [H]ard enough.

 

[elvn]

About heat and summer , I used to run a rig in a hot room years ago and the gpu's would always start artifacting and dying in a year or so from cooking in the summer.
..
--- if you are spending thousands of dollars on a 2560x1600~x1440 lcd and/or eyefinity~nvidia surround lcd's + sli/crossfire or a 6990 and a good rig, I would hope you have enough money for your own living space and at least a single room air conditioner if not central air. I can't imagine having the money to buy such high end toys yet keeping the hot-running electronics in 80 - 90+ degree room heat, trying to rely on fans pushing hot air. It doesn't make sense to me. That's not even taking into account your own comfort.

Like I said in a prev reply, I keep my pc's in a separate room and run hdmi cables (+ usb or usb-over-cat5/6 cables to a hub) at my desk. The noise, heat , power blocks, and a lot of the wiring/mess is kept in a different room. So for me the noise isn't really an issue but I know I'm in the minority. The room the pc's are in benefits from my central ac in the summer as well, its not some crowded hot closet or anything. Once I got used to not having a pc in my room, all pc's are loud to me. even the 'quiet' ones. They aren't really. Turn your pc off - thats quiet.

 

[samuelmorris]

I never had any problems with GPUs overheating, at all, even when they reached 100C or so. The main problem I had was all the ambient heat they put out, combined with the location of my PC at the time, next to quite a hot monitor, that led my CPU to reach 100C and shut down the PC. A cooler reseat, more sensible voltages and better case fans and that problem was easily resolved, but the uprated case fans I bought don't even get used now I have 6970s, they simply don't get hot, and don't make things hot either.

 

[elvn]

well those gpus that artifacted and later died to be fair were a very long time ago and were a particularly hot running model line (I think ati 9700/9800 series), and the room was extremely hot. Good to hear that 6970's run cool but the 6990's dual gpus apparently need some high fan action.. I'm assuming that it gets hot if the fan has to run as loud as people are saying.
..
But yeah overall very hot room temperatures are bad regardless, and uncomfortable. I just find it kind of silly to think of someone dropping around 2k on gpu(s) + monitor(s) alone not being able to have at least an in-window or pillar-style air conditioner set conservatively in the summer. Does not compute.
..
..

 

[samuelmorris]

The 6990 doesn't run hot. It's loud because the temps run pretty reasonable. If AMD allowed the 6990 to reach the temp levels the GTX470/480 reached routinely, it'd actually not be too loud in a gaming environment.

 

[elvn]

cool.

 

[elvn]

I just reread the review and a few other site's to refresh my memory.
..
6990 = 49C idle / 89C under load
I've seen other sites list 62C/91C , 40C / 78~82C, etc.
vs gtx580 sli 46c / 90c , 48C/89C . etc
..
Noise level : Idle: 44.9db , Load: 70.2 stock / 77.3 (overclocked)

--------------------------------------

According to guru3d.com , a lot of sites test the dBa way too close to the card for standardization purposes, rather than a reasonable distance you might be from the pc.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6990-review/13

"There are a lot of differences in measurements amongst websites. Some even place the dBA meter 10cm away from the card. Considering that's not where you ear is located, we do it our way. For each dBA test we close the PC/chassis and move the dBA gun 75 cm away from the PC. Roughly the same proximity you'll have from a PC in a real-world situation. Above IDLE noise levels."

According to their testing, which is at approximately 2.5 ' away from a closed pc case.. the 6990 is 38 dBa idle, and only 46 dBa under load (47 dBa overclocked under load). Thats quite a real-world difference from actually hearing something hit your ears at 70.1 - 77.3 dBa

"For the card in IDLE we measure 38 DBa which hardly can be heard really. And fully stressed... 46~47 DBA. Now that might sounds (and is) on the high side but I really do need to make a remark here. Explaining sounds pressure is a hard thing to do. Sometimes 44 DBa can be annoying and 46 pretty acceptable. That's the case with the R6990 as you are not hearing the fan whirring or anything, no it's pure airflow that you hear. So while the card obviously is noisy, it's not at a frustrating level. "
..
..

 

[samuelmorris]

I'm pleased with the result Guru3D have come up with. Even at the ridiculous 100% fan speed of the HD6970, which is nowhere near required, it's nowhere near as annoying as the sapphire 3870 I had, at any fan speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tbFdJVMUO0
This gives some idea of the noise that card made, but mine was worse. Such an awful acoustic quality, it actually gave me severe headaches.

 

[elvn]

..I used to have a duorb aftermarket gpu cooler on a 9600gt.. it was a quiet, pleasant shooshy/hush sound, and that sound was probably evident only because it was crammed next to a 3rd party sound card. It had two fans drawing through heatpipes off a single heatsink for the single gpu card.
..
..A similar design to this would work great on two separate heatsinks for a dual card like the 6990 I think. Maybe someone will come up with something like this for it eventually.

 

[samuelmorris]

The HD6990 has a lot more to cool than the 9600GT, massive VRM stages, a central PLX chip, as well as two enormous GPUs. Generally unified coolers work better with such complex boards.
Arctic made a 3-fan cooler for the 4870X2 and 5970 that would almost certainly work with the 6990. Shame those two coolers were heaps of crap though :/

 

[elvn]

yeah I wasn't saying it would fit or that a 9600gt had similar cooling requirement.
... I meant that something designed similarly but with the fan over each gpu might work. . As it is now, the stock cooler has a heatsink over each gpu, just not a heatsink integrated around a fan on each gpu.
..
http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990-Dual-GPU-Graphics-Card-Goes-Official-3.jpg

http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/373/images/Image_01S.jpg
..
.. I get that unifying / boxing it in could help, especially if you want it directed out of the case through vents on the pci bracket/case-slot. I can see the central chip on the naked card, so I see your point. Maybe a three fan cooler would be good if designed correctly. I remember seeing that arctic fan cooler now that you mention it, but I never read any reviews on it.


The sound level won't really be an issue for me, but if an aftermarket cooler comes out that cools it better w/out resorting to water I might get it.

...
..
..

 

[Trimlock]

relatively close performance to two 6970's but with SIXTY watts LESS?!? that is crazy!

I'd say great card, needs water cooling to reach max [H]!

 

[cannondale06]

relatively close performance to two 6970's but with SIXTY watts LESS?!? that is crazy!

I'd say great card, needs water cooling to reach max [H]!

its not a great card at all. its very loud, hot, and consumes a ton of power when switching to oc mode which is what anybody that buys this card will do. a 6970 crossfire setup costs less, performs better and is much quieter.

 

[samuelmorris]

Well, clearly they wouldn't if it wasn't worth the tradeoff. At default settings, it's 95% of a pair of HD6970s, and 60W less power is quite substantial. The 6990 isn't for everyone, or even for many, but it's a superb card for the niche market it caters for.

 

[Mr Mean]

If it wasn't for the Battlefield 3 gameplay footage, I would have bought this card. By the time Battlefield 3 is out, AMD and Nvidia should have their next generation video cards out. I am not going to make the same mistake like I did with Battlefield 2

 

[cannondale06]

Well, clearly they wouldn't if it wasn't worth the tradeoff. At default settings, it's 95% of a pair of HD6970s, and 60W less power is quite substantial. The 6990 isn't for everyone, or even for many, but it's a superb card for the niche market it caters for.

60 watts is nothing for the avergae person that would buy this card. and again I doubt anybody that gets this will not run it in oc mode whcih will use basically the same amount of power as 6970 anyway. overall its a silly product for most people because 6950 or 6970 crossfire provides a much quieter, cheaper, and equally performing product.