We've all heard of the value of the 'halo' product. In this case, Nvidia's new flagship 590 videocard has been found to 'burn' out when overclocked and pushed to the maximum. Such is not true of AMD's 6990 which also features a dual bios feature that is overclocker friendly and allows quick recoveries from 'bad' overclocking excursions. The severity of Nvidia's 590 downclocking has made the stock 590 perform below expectations. Certainly performance at the level of dual 570 SLI was not what enthusiasts were seeking.
And those who dare to push the clocks any higher risk burning up their new $700 investment. Considering that the 6990 has more VRAM per gpu, 2gb vs 1.5 gb, is overclocker friendly, and has greater availablity, has AMD won this round of the dual GPU wars? All indications point to yes for now. Nvidia made the 590 quiet, yes. Did Nvidia give the 590 bleeding edge performance to justify the price. No. And pushing for that performance is a risky bet. Let's not even talk about the memory limitations.
Bottom line:
Best single GPU video card: GTX 580 3GB
Best dual GPU video card: Radeon 6990
And those who dare to push the clocks any higher risk burning up their new $700 investment. Considering that the 6990 has more VRAM per gpu, 2gb vs 1.5 gb, is overclocker friendly, and has greater availablity, has AMD won this round of the dual GPU wars? All indications point to yes for now. Nvidia made the 590 quiet, yes. Did Nvidia give the 590 bleeding edge performance to justify the price. No. And pushing for that performance is a risky bet. Let's not even talk about the memory limitations.
Bottom line:
Best single GPU video card: GTX 580 3GB
Best dual GPU video card: Radeon 6990