Radeon HD 7990 Vs. GeForce GTX 690: The Crowd Picks A Winner

the statistical methods are weak, and considering how close the results were when confounding elements were removed, I have to call that a tie
 
I'm glad to see AMD making an effort. I can't wait for the Eyefinity Frame Pacing fix...
 
Did anyone vote against the 7990 due to the awful screeching coil whine? That made me really sad when I bought mine.
 
Haha, my statistics are a little rusty, but I believe with a sample size of 6, their confidence interval comes out to about 40% (using Steam's 5.6 million as the population size). Which means when they asked people about Bioshock Infinite with frame pacing disabled and 50% of them selected AMD, that would mean that 50% +/- 40% (or in other words, between 10% and 90%) of the entire population would've selected the same answer. How useless is that? :D
 
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SpongeBob said:
Well if your 1 sample does they all must.
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I was asking that question in all seriousness (I can't see the actual story at work), because it is mentioned in more than half of the reviews of the card and many, many people are complaining about the Malta cards having whining issues. It was incredibly distracting when I was trying to play games even though with the 13.8 beta it was smooth as butter in every game I tried.
 
Coil whine is VERRY much a case-to-case problem. Some brands/models have a higher chance of exhibiting it, but mostly it's down to the individual unit. A new video card can be manufactured perfectly, and exhibit no whine whatsoever, but once in the packaging it can be bumped or dropped and shock the mosfets, the card will still function 100% but exhibit newfound coil whine. It really is hard to prevent.
 
I wish so much they would do a larger study with several dual sets of computers, some conataining the SAME gpu. I'm not saying that this test didn't show anything, it is probably indicative, especially on bioshock, of some of the issues that remain. But the sample study was too small and they need to see what people do when they just think that there is a difference and there isn't.
 
I only get coil whine when vsync is off with crazy high FPS values (like 2000+). It isn't just the 7990 either, every video card I've owned in the past 5 years have exhibited this.
 
x3sphere said:
I only get coil whine when vsync is off with crazy high FPS values (like 2000+). It isn't just the 7990 either, every video card I've owned in the past 5 years have exhibited this.
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Same motherboard or psu for all of them?
 
I would suggest that the 690 is end of life, and not really relevant. Also, there are so many flavors and versions of the 690, the particular model is very significant. A reference 690 card vs. an EVGA Superclocked is no contest at all! It's not as simple as this.
 
greybaby said:
I wish so much they would do a larger study with several dual sets of computers, some conataining the SAME gpu. I'm not saying that this test didn't show anything, it is probably indicative, especially on bioshock, of some of the issues that remain. But the sample study was too small and they need to see what people do when they just think that there is a difference and there isn't.
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You are 100% correct. Everything you said plus the test needs to be double blind, the people administering the test can't know what card is being tested, and the participants need to be tested multiple times and come to the same conclusions. Just because you ask someone to pick which is better one time, doesn't mean they can repeat that selection to any statistically significant level. Without knowing if they can do it every time, including the placebo 3rd machine you suggest, we can't validate their responses. We also don't know if the platform makes a difference. would X79 give different results than AMD 990? The results also show that it could be game specific and the results could change with a different set of games tested. Or possibly, even testing a different section of the game.

These types of tests, in order to be objective, are very time consuming and require very knowledgeable testers. You can't just set up a few machines and have a half a dozen random individuals sit down for 2 minutes and expect any type of statistically meaningful results. Tom's trying to pass this off as any kind of a conclusive test is so bad that I actually question their ethics. I can't believe they are stupid enough to actually believe what they did gives us any kind of an objective result. Them trying to present it like it does is borderline libel, IMO.
 
This, in all my years of following computer hardware, is the most promising thing I've read about. I think I speak for many when I say that I'm sick of not being able to trust review sites because of the possibility of bias due to money and profit being a factor. I'm not saying all review sites are corrupt. What I am saying is that removing the possibility for a manufacturer to bias results by putting the testing in the hands of enthusiasts like you and me is a LARGE step in the right direction.

No one knows what your preferences are more than you - and tallying those direct experiences to come to a conclusion using a large sample base is the way to go. Not by some guy locked in a room with a new graphics card and a press release. Not by spewing out numbers that hint at what the gaming experience is "like", but by putting the experience in the hands of enthusiasts like you and me, and letting us be the judge. Then, from enough of those experiences and opinions, present the data and let people decide for themselves. To not hand out gold and silver awards, but just to present the facts and let the intelligence of the consumer do the rest.

No matter what brand comes out on top in these sorts of tests, the community at large comes out as the real benefactor.
 
its not how you stand by your car

its how you race your car

you gotta learn that.
 
Velocity_Micro said:
I would suggest that the 690 is end of life, and not really relevant. Also, there are so many flavors and versions of the 690, the particular model is very significant. A reference 690 card vs. an EVGA Superclocked is no contest at all! It's not as simple as this.
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So what you're saying is any card that is EOL isn't relevant anymore, or what? I'm hoping I just misunderstood what you were trying to say.

I don't know what you mean by different flavors or versions of the 690, there is only one version. The only differences between any of them are clock speeds, maybe the bios, a reference cooler or a waterblock. There's no contest between them unless you value 25~75 MHz higher at stock an advantage. Things like that are easily offset by overclocking, mine made it 1176 MHz on both GPUs, sure somewhere around 1100 is average on these things.

Still, the 7990 is a wonderful card by the looks of it now, its cheaper then a 690, and a 780 (Or maybe slightly higher, but still better), will most likely get higher PPD in folding, more memory. Frame pacing drivers are out, all that's needed is the EyeFinity fix.
 
Only problem with the GTX690 is that Nvidia went full-retard and gimped it with 2GB/GPU, essentially limiting it to 1080p/120Hz or 1600p/60Hz users at most- and the latter are already feeling the results of that limitation. They could make a GTX790 tomorrow with GTX770 GPUs and 8GB per GPU, and that'd actually be relevant. I'd take two, if they could figure out how to properly drive a 4k panel.
 
Shogon said:
So what you're saying is any card that is EOL isn't relevant anymore, or what? I'm hoping I just misunderstood what you were trying to say.
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I meant irrelevant if you go out today and decide to buy a new video card, I would not suggest that anybody buy a 690 in any flavor unless you found an end of life fire sale. It's a great card if you already own one, but at it's current official $999 MSRP price, I would pick something else like an EVGA 780 with ACX for $660 and easily crank it up to beyond what a stock Titan can currently do.

The 7990 also kicks ass for that amount of money, too. I wish is was not so hot and so long, but it still kicks ass. Different cards for different tastes, usages, needs.
 
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