AMD Radeon HD 6990 Video Card Follow-Up Review @ [H]

What about the power draw of a SLI 580 setup over a CFX 6970 setup? How about the power draw of the previous SLI 480 setup over a CFX 5870 back then?

My belief is that if someone is expecting to spend over a $1000 on a video card setup, chances are that they will have a PSU that is able to compete.

I myself am wondering whether it is a GTX 590 that Brent currently has on his bench as I want to see what it can do!

There is some merit to mention power draw. The card isn't entirely meant for pure enthusiasts, remember it can also be used for people who do not wish to go with CF capable motherboards.

Should Enthusiasts care? no, but there are more then just pure balls-to-the-walls gamers at [H] now too. Its a fair question I think.

I think its good that the [H] still caters to its crowed it garnered so long ago from the 300A overclocking results from Quake2.
 
Uh, I'm sorry but to throw a single GPU card into a matchup against a multi GPU card is just irrelevant. I would hope that "crossfire or SLI on a stick" would beat any single GPU peer.

I have no bias for either camp but really, what's been provven here? A brand new Dual GPU card is faster than a single GPU card. Wow, does 1 + 1 still equal 2??

Why not wait till Nvidia drops a competitor and publish that no matter what the outcome.

:(
 
Uh, I'm sorry but to throw a single GPU card into a matchup against a multi GPU card is just irrelevant. I would hope that "crossfire or SLI on a stick" would beat any single GPU peer.

I have no bias for either camp but really, what's been provven here? A brand new Dual GPU card is faster than a single GPU card. Wow, does 1 + 1 still equal 2??

Why not wait till Nvidia drops a competitor and publish that no matter what the outcome.

:(

It's a fair comparison when taking cost into consideration... like most people making a decision which to buy do. Hit Newegg up for the average price on:

1xGTX 580
1x6990
2x6970

and I think you'll find the logic behind the reviews choice of cards.
 
Just wondering, could you guys give a brief statement/summary of the card's performance at 935/1400? Does it allow for a worthwhile boost in performance, like for instance playable framerates with 4xAA @2560x1600 with Metro2033?
 
That's EXACTLY the reason why I post this around. Because ALOT of people don't know you can do this, since you CAN'T do this with Nvidia card. AMD's only. So people are confused with Tri-Fire because of Nvidia inability to do Tri-SLi with only 2 cards.

No they aren't, this old news to anyone who has a clue what SLI and CF or has spent any time researching the subject which I would think that most people buying hundreds or thousands of dollars of video cards has done.

Yes the AMD price versus performance ration is a lot better than nVidia's when looking at only performance however perforamnce isn't my only concern these days as cards from both vendors in this range have more than enough performance for pretty much everything thrown at them. No S3D or other 3D depth technology no sale to me.
 
Good review, but not a valid comparison. A dual cored card versus a single core card. I am amazed that AMD beat Nivida to the start line. I mean Nivida invented the duel core stuff. If or when Nivida gets a dual core, then it will be a valid comparison. Fyi... My wife is still using the 7950GX2.
 
No they aren't, this old news to anyone who has a clue what SLI and CF or has spent any time researching the subject which I would think that most people buying hundreds or thousands of dollars of video cards has done.

You'd be very sadly mistaken then.
 
You'd be very sadly mistaken then.

So people just spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on video cards and don't bother to read up on this stuff and ask a few questions? Really, how are you even supposed to know what do with two, three and four video cards without some education? Cetainly the average person who buys and builds these kinds of rigs knows a lot about multi-GPU technology from both AMD and nVidia.
 
lol

I was going to post a well-thought out response to the idiocy jwalk spewed above, but Kyle did it so much more succinctly than I would have.

Who's the idiot, the idiot who spews mindless groupthink drivel like you or someone who has an honest and considerate differing of opinion.

:cool:
 
Who's the idiot, the idiot who spews mindless groupthink drivel like you or someone who has an honest and considerate differing of opinion.

:cool:

Pretty sure in this case it's you, since you made a stupid fucking argument that other nvidia fanboys have been parroting for a LONG time (seriously since the 3870x2 days) for some reason even though it has absolutely no relevance in the purchasing decision of any consumer.
 
Personally, I would have liked to have seen how 6950's in crossfire would have faired against the 6990. Since the 6990+6970 gets mentioned as being the same price as the 580 sli, shouldn't it also be brought up that 3x 6950's (around $240-$260 after rebate) are about the same price as the 6990? Seems to me like that would be of even more relevance as that's a value offering against an already good value offering.
 
Personally, I would have liked to have seen how 6950's in crossfire would have faired against the 6990. Since the 6990+6970 gets mentioned as being the same price as the 580 sli, shouldn't it also be brought up that 3x 6950's (around $240-$260 after rebate) are about the same price as the 6990? Seems to me like that would be of even more relevance as that's a value offering against an already good value offering.

Well, 3 6950's at $244 each would come out to about $732 or so, which is just a little more than the cost of a 6990. This goes to show you just how awesome of a value the 6950's are as it is probably the best bargain in the higher end graphics card market right now. The problem will be that you need 3 slots with enough room to keep the cards from choking. Doing such a setup on a capable motherboard will almost completely rule out being able to add much of anything like a dedicated sound card.

I think it boils down to the fact that there is a lot we want to see from the HardOCP crew, but they are going to have to do what they can with the time they have just like all of us. Their review style of reporting real game performance i'm sure leaves them rather busy.

Who's the idiot, the idiot who spews mindless groupthink drivel like you or someone who has an honest and considerate differing of opinion.

:cool:

You can compare anything against anything you want. I already think that someone is thinking outside the box when they compare not just the number of GPU's, but the kind of performance you can get for a set amount of money. The fact, is that most of us have a budget and we want to maximize GPU performance for the budget. The budget is a binding constraint and we are more or less trying to juggle an optimization problem.

You should step into the DC subforum every now and then and see how this argument is always in play among the folders for the team. In our case, we try to figure out how much production a set amount of money can buy us, and it doesn't really matter how and what as we care about total production.
 
Thanks for the review! I'm glad [H] is willing to dive into areas that other reviewers never cover. "Card Y vs. Card Z" reviews are a diamond dozen, for all intensive purposes.
 
Hey, don't laugh. A buddy of mine bought two GTX 460's, new motherboard (a Gigabyte board that's based on the 890FX ), CPU (Phenom II X6 1100T), etc. He did his homework and whatnot and thought he bought all the right equipment... except until he put it together. That's when he realized he made one tiny little mistake...

Although the board he bought specifically said that it supported multi-CPU technology, he made the assumption that it supported nvidia SLI. It didn't, it only supported crossfire.

It wasn't a total loss since he was able to take the other card and install it in his other system, but he was a little bummed out (and pissed at himself) that he couldn't do SLI with the board he bought.

So people just spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on video cards and don't bother to read up on this stuff and ask a few questions? Really, how are you even supposed to know what do with two, three and four video cards without some education? Cetainly the average person who buys and builds these kinds of rigs knows a lot about multi-GPU technology from both AMD and nVidia.
 
So people just spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on video cards and don't bother to read up on this stuff and ask a few questions? Really, how are you even supposed to know what do with two, three and four video cards without some education? Cetainly the average person who buys and builds these kinds of rigs knows a lot about multi-GPU technology from both AMD and nVidia.

You would be shocked how many people i know that have multi-gpu systems, but have no idea bout the concept, or how to tweak/fix etc.

Specially when they tell you (my video cards have 2gigs overall so im fine)

/facepalm
 
Thanks for the review! I'm glad [H] is willing to dive into areas that other reviewers never cover. "Card Y vs. Card Z" reviews are a diamond dozen, for all intensive purposes.
wait. I can't stop laughing out loud. Seriously. Please tell me you meant to butcher those two phrases, back to back.

LOL
 
I mean Nivida invented the duel core stuff. If or when Nivida gets a dual core, then it will be a valid comparison. Fyi... My wife is still using the 7950GX2.
Wrong, Nvidia did not invent dual core video cards, in fact they were the last to do so. 3dfx did it with the voodoo5 (there were also voodoo2 multigpu based boards made by Quantum 3D used in professional simulators and arcades but not for consumers) and ATI did it with the Rage Fury MAXX both more than 10 years ago.
 
Great article... but on the 1st page it's "convenience" not "connivance" (which implies wrongdoing, or assisting with).

Sorry to nitpick.

-P
 
So people just spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on video cards and don't bother to read up on this stuff and ask a few questions? Really, how are you even supposed to know what do with two, three and four video cards without some education? Cetainly the average person who buys and builds these kinds of rigs knows a lot about multi-GPU technology from both AMD and nVidia.

Look at all the people who cry that you can't OC a GPU that uses a 6-pin PCI-E connection because the PCI-E 6-pin connection won't provide enough power...

[sarcasm]I would hope that people buying any sort of GPU would at least learn how electronics and power draw work...[/sarcasm]
 
Good review, but not a valid comparison. A dual cored card versus a single core card. I am amazed that AMD beat Nivida to the start line. I mean Nivida invented the duel core stuff. If or when Nivida gets a dual core, then it will be a valid comparison. Fyi... My wife is still using the 7950GX2.


no 3DFX invented the dual gpu and SLI.. nvidia hasn't invented shit. they just bought out 3DFX and called it their own creation.



ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuu- lorien beat me to it.. arg!!!


damn totally forgot about the ATI rage fury MAXX card too


You would be shocked how many people i know that have multi-gpu systems, but have no idea bout the concept, or how to tweak/fix etc.

Specially when they tell you (my video cards have 2gigs overall so im fine)

/facepalm

i know more then a few.. pain in the ass dealing with the people i play BFBC2 with that have absolutely no clue about computers or graphics then sit there and argue with me when i suggest shit for them instead of the 300 dollar useless motherboard they bought when they could of payed 150 for a board that does all the same shit as that one. its quite sad to see how uneducated people are when it comes to computer hardware but thats what the industry lives on and why cards like the 4870x2/5970/6990/9800GX2/295/590 are made in the first place.
 
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Great article... but on the 1st page it's "convenience" not "connivance" (which implies wrongdoing, or assisting with).

Sorry to nitpick.

-P

Thank you! I was just about to post the same thing.

Not to fret however, this is a gross misapplication of a word and hardly the same thing as 'teh' for 'the'.

:)
 
Look at all the people who cry that you can't OC a GPU that uses a 6-pin PCI-E connection because the PCI-E 6-pin connection won't provide enough power...

[sarcasm]I would hope that people buying any sort of GPU would at least learn how electronics and power draw work...[/sarcasm]

While a working knowledge of Ohm's law would be helpful, it would be more helpful if the lying marketing douchebags at the PSU manufacturers were held accountable to produce a PSU that actually produces 100% of the advertised power.
 
Correction: on the first page, you use the term connivance when it seems that you mean convenience (of getting two GPUs on a single PCB).
 
I never knew you could do 6990+6970, giving you more VRAM, AND 3 GPUs, See you can learn something new everyday, or there abouts.
 
"In our launch evaluation we evaluated the Radeon HD 6990 in a 3-way Eyefinity display configuration and found an enjoyable gameplay experience at 5760x1200. The performance was similar to two Radeon HD 6970 CrossFireX video cards, but did demand a higher price for the connivance of this all-in-one packaged video card. There were some performance comparison..."

Connivance? Convenience?

Comparison? Comparisons?

:D
 
As a day-1 6970 CFX owner I was a little pleased (with myself) that my cards held up so well against the 6990. It was what I expected from a dual-gpu solution though.

I had a 5970 before this and the lasting impression was "always wait for the cards with aftermarket cooling solutions". When/if a 6990 is released with a factory-installed Accelero Xtreme (I say factory installed because of that 5970 fiasco) I'll consider buying one and trying tri-fire - provided it works well with Eyefinity and not just single-monitor solutions.
 
The main utility of the 6990 is CrossFire-on-a-stick.
This allows limited motherboards a Crossfire solution and that is the main audience for the card. I think three card solutions are just impractical, regardless of vendor.

I can even buy Crossfired 6990, but not a three way...........that's why you don't see it done in most reviews, plain and simple.

The BIOS switch is there, like some one else said, to give you speeds that rival two 6970s, again if you can't fit them on your board......otherwise the smart move is two 6970s.:D

Your conclusion only fits your own needs. Tri-fire is very viable in this generation because of Crossfire > SLI scaling. Its practical to get that much gpu power with only 2 slots vs 3 taken up if you have the money to spend. Nothing beats 6990+6970 for $1000. Plain and simple. If you have ever seen 2-3 video cards sandwiched side by side you can see why minimizing cards and maximizing space in between is ideal.
Here's another incentive for watercooling niche crowd. 2 water blocks vs 3 waterblocks with trifire.
 
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I never knew you could do 6990+6970, giving you more VRAM, AND 3 GPUs, See you can learn something new everyday, or there abouts.

See heatless, people don't know anything about MGPU if they think it combines VRAM. Lol!
 
Any plans for a 570x2 comparison? 570s MRSP is 350, while street is ~300$ AR. I would think it would be a very fair comparison.
 
no 3DFX invented the dual gpu and SLI.. nvidia hasn't invented shit. they just bought out 3DFX and called it their own creation.

I too feel others have "no clue about computers or graphics " sometimes:D Did you just get into computing in the last 5 years? (joke ;)) Technology is a field where often you build off of exsisting techs to bring something new or better to the game.

Nvidia developed Scalable Link Interface
3dfx developed Scan-Line Interleave

Nvidia bought out 3dfx so as owners of the old IP, they had every right to change the technology and re use the acronym.

IMO: Saying something like "Nvidia messed up by not implementing 2 + 1 card tri SLI" or "Nvidia's requirement for SLI MBs sucks" that is fair critisism.

Nvidia invented world's first C programming language API for GPGPU, CUDA.
Hybrid-SLI
Optimus
Physx
On-board transformation and lighting
The GPU (term to describe producst that offload graphics process from CPU)
First quad-core processor for mobile devices
and many more implementations of technology.

But their real value is not what they pioneer or invent, but what they are able to produce for the consumer which gives the consumer a choice, and benifits AMD fanboys since it develops market competition. I have owned both company's cards and each co. has had their pros and cons. When I happen to own a card from one company, I dont put down the other company, that's being a fanboy.

Cheers!
 
Ya know what Kyle,

Chill the F out.

Go ahead and ban me if you want..


Sorry, I did not mean to offend your fragile sensibilities. Please accept my heartfelt apology.
 
i find it ironic that some of you guys are arguing the same point.

one side wants to give amd credit for things ati did before amd bought them while those same people are not willing to give nvidia credit for things 3dfx did before they bought them.

you guys are kinda crazy
 
Very nice review, as always.

A couple of things I think you should maybe mention when comparing. Recent AMD drivers have reduced the graphical quality of the default settings, so unless you specifically go and set the drivers back to HIGH... you are running with reduced quality graphics in order to get a higher magnitude of performance.

sources:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,7...irectX-11-Generation/Grafikkarte/Test/?page=4

http://blogs.nvidia.com/2010/11/testing-nvidia-vs-amd-image-quality/ (hehe of course NVIDIA will be keen to point this out).

The second point I would like to make.... please please stop running games at low levels of antialiasing. No one that buys a top end graphics card wants to play their games at 4xAA.

We all immediately bump it up to 24x Edge Detect or 32xCSAA (even if we can't see much of a difference between that and the 16xAA settings :D). Could you please make sure you are using the maximum AA settings possible, as I believe one of the biggest advantages that NVIDIA has in this generation is that it can run very high levels of AA with very little impact on performance. Since you're not doing much comparison at this level, I don't believe much has been made of this.

Lastly, can you add more comparisons at 1920x1080p... I understand that you do the 16:10 ratio 1920x1200 resolution, however according to Steam 18.88% of all Steam users are using 1080p. Surely as this is the highest percentage for all primary display resolutions that would be a compelling reason to concentrate more on that resolution, as it's likely a much higher percentage of the gamers/review readers are going to be using that resolution instead?

Thanks for reading!
 
Very nice review, as always.

A couple of things I think you should maybe mention when comparing. Recent AMD drivers have reduced the graphical quality of the default settings, so unless you specifically go and set the drivers back to HIGH... you are running with reduced quality graphics in order to get a higher magnitude of performance.

sources:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,7...irectX-11-Generation/Grafikkarte/Test/?page=4

http://blogs.nvidia.com/2010/11/testing-nvidia-vs-amd-image-quality/ (hehe of course NVIDIA will be keen to point this out).

The second point I would like to make.... please please stop running games at low levels of antialiasing. No one that buys a top end graphics card wants to play their games at 4xAA.

We all immediately bump it up to 24x Edge Detect or 32xCSAA (even if we can't see much of a difference between that and the 16xAA settings :D). Could you please make sure you are using the maximum AA settings possible, as I believe one of the biggest advantages that NVIDIA has in this generation is that it can run very high levels of AA with very little impact on performance. Since you're not doing much comparison at this level, I don't believe much has been made of this.

Lastly, can you add more comparisons at 1920x1080p... I understand that you do the 16:10 ratio 1920x1200 resolution, however according to Steam 18.88% of all Steam users are using 1080p. Surely as this is the highest percentage for all primary display resolutions that would be a compelling reason to concentrate more on that resolution, as it's likely a much higher percentage of the gamers/review readers are going to be using that resolution instead?

Thanks for reading!

First off, welcome to the community. I'm going to graze you a little bit since your a noobie. First thing is AMD fixed their default image quality setting with the 11.1 Catalyst driver. It's in the readme. I had a thread about when they were optimizing and I was outspoken and opposed to it and let's just say the community wsasn't too happy with me about that. I have since gave them respect for changing things back since the 11.1 Catalyst driver. But anyway, second thing is the article lists Maximum Playable settings. If they could add more antialiasing and maintain their playable fps then they would have. The only exception is apples to apples, They would indeed crank the AA but they need a point where all cards in the evaluation can run the setting to compare apples to apples performance.
 
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