Official Radeon HD 6990 reviews

[Heinz68]

Just ordered the Saphire HD 6990 $709.99 from Newegg Canada. It was sold out in the afternoon and fast restocked.
Looks like the supply is better than the HD 5970 was and the price will probably come down but I need some HOT toy to play with now.

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by Heinz68

Just ordered the Saphire HD 6990 $709.99 from Newegg Canada. It was sold out in the afternoon and fast restocked.
Looks like the supply is better than the HD 5970 was and the price will probably come down but I need some HOT toy to play with now.

Cool. I hope you do a review for us all.

[Kain]

Originally Posted by Redeemed

To the best of my knowledge you are correct. The 4GB is little more than marketing.

Originally Posted by slaWter

That's just marketing.

But at least you get 2GB per GPU which is enough for most Eyefinity setups.

Isn't that false advertising? Couldn't AMD get in trouble for saying it's a 4GB card?

[K007]

Originally Posted by Kain

Isn't that false advertising? Couldn't AMD get in trouble for saying it's a 4GB card?

that is how they advertise these gpu's both nvidia and ati does it

but anyone who is buying these kind of gpu's would know the real mem is actually split in 2/gpu.

[Ancient76]

Originally Posted by Heinz68

LOL

I was thinking the guy never stops. Plus nothing to compare to in that lousy review.
Is the cooler noisy, sure it is but the open test bench just makes it even more noisy. I don't think AMD could have got better air cooler on such powerful card and keep it 2 slots at the same time.

I don't think there is any problem with the heat at least not compared to other powerful set ups. The load temps are just about the same as GTX 570 SLI, GTX 580 SLI and much lower than GTX 480 and HD 4870x2.

If that genius reviewer wanted to cook something on the card he should have used at least GTX 480.

Here ONLY the OC HD 6990 is much more noisy than GTX 580 SLI. Both picture are from AnandTech HD 6990 reviews

Based on the above I don't think the rumored GTX 590 is going to run cooler or more quiet provided it's going to be as powerful as the HD 6990 and and use just 2 slots.

This man makes the best video tests, and he is honest.

From Tom's:

Up to about 78 degrees Celsius, the Radeon HD 6990's fan spins at about 2180 RPM. We’ll call that the safe zone. Within a minute or so in a 3D application, the warmest GPU heats up to somewhere between 88 and 89 degrees, and the fan cranks up to 2880 RPM. That’s “who played a trick on me and swapped my graphics card out for a GeForce GTX 480?” territory. Both the AMD and Nvidia cards crank out about 51 dB. In order to keep the card at 90 degrees or less, the fan then speeds up to 3600 RPM, or what I call Charlie Sheen F-18 mode.

There’s no excuse for a graphics card to be this loud and, if spinning its cooling fan up to 3600 RPM is the only way to keep the Radeon HD 6990 from overheating, then this product simply isn’t ready for consumption. Because the problem is related to fan speed, there’s a chance an updated firmware could smooth out the way AMD handles heat. Right now, though, there’s no way I’d install one of these things in a gaming machine.

Simple, you can't put this cheap cooling solution on card like this.

[mullet]

Yeah and most test on a test platform which is open. Wait till people pack that in there PC and close the case off. I bet the temps go through the roof. I think it would do okay in my case but it has very good air flow.

[Ninja Prime]

Some reviews are getting better results than others. Some reviews are putting it below the 480 GTX in noise and power consumption, even below the 580 GTX sometimes. Rumor has it, they are using phase change thermal paste that needs to be cycled and cooked in first, and removing the heatsink to take the card apart(many reviewers do) requires reapplying the paste, if not done correctly it can cause improper heat transfer.

Might explain the mixed heat/sound results.

[Amuro]

Originally Posted by slaWter

There are water blocks announced for the Palit/Gainward custom PCB.

Really? Who's making them? And do I really need 3GB for 5760x1080? It seems that 1.5GB is enough for that resolution so I'll probably just get two 590s.

[Amuro]

Originally Posted by slaWter

http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/index.p...t01returnid=17

I'd say so. 1.5GB per GPU is not enough for 3 screen setups. 2GB is the sweetspot for your res.
Besides, to keep those 4 GPUs on the two 590s under load, you'd need to increase the AA level with your "low" 6MPixel resolution and then the VRAM usage goes up again.

Thanks a lot for the info!

[Pennyboy]

Hmm i have read several reviews now on the 6990 and a friend and I got talking about the 6990 last night, we both came to the same conclusion that we don't really know who would actually buy one of these, let me explain. A person who can afford a 6990 is the sort of person who can afford to lay down a serious amount of cash on their PC and the will be an enthusiast and a enthusiast is going want the faster hardware available and for the extra money they would probably go with an 580 GTX SLI setup over a 6990. That being said feel free to disagree with me.
And has anyone on here bought one yet? further proof I am wrong lol

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by Pennyboy

Hmm i have read several reviews now on the 6990 and a friend and I got talking about the 6990 last night, we both came to the same conclusion that we don't really know who would actually buy one of these, let me explain. A person who can afford a 6990 is the sort of person who can afford to lay down a serious amount of cash on their PC and the will be an enthusiast and a enthusiast is going want the faster hardware available and for the extra money they would probably go with an 580 GTX SLI setup over a 6990. That being said feel free to disagree with me.
And has anyone on here bought one yet? further proof I am wrong lol

You can buy 2 of these and add it into the same form-factor as a 580 SLi setup and you would get ridiculous performance.

Let's face it, the only people who will be buying something that is $700 bucks are enthusiasts who can put 2 of these in their cases together (quad-fire) and water cool the bastards.

Me? I'm happy with my 580, but seeing the raw performance of a single card that is so much better than mine in every conceivable way does leave me a little envious

-edit-

Seems like the water-blocks will be out on the 18th.

http://www.koolance.com/water-coolin...roduct_id=1117

[Heinz68]

Originally Posted by Muppet

Cool. I hope you do a review for us all.

Sure I will when i get the card and you can be surethat it will be 100% honest. For now I only have the e-mail confirmation. "Your order should be processed and ready for ship-out within 24-48 hours." 3/8/2011 8:11:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ancient76

This man makes the best video tests, and he is honest.

Oh really? Did you watch it? If you think it was so good and professional, how would you rate it compare to this video, since the review was basically just about cooling and heat.

Originally Posted by Ancient76

From Tom's:

Simple, you can't put this cheap cooling solution on card like this.

Again oh really, if the the vapor chamber cooling is so cheap I wonder why did Nvidia copied it from AMD on some of the cards. Here is the HD 6990 dual vapor chambers cooler. I don't think there is anything cheap about it plus I don't remember reading any review describing as cheap.



According to all reviews there is no problem with the heat on HD 6990 at least not compared to other powerful setups like GTX 570 SLI, GTX 580 SLI and HD 6970 CF. Furthermore GTX 480 and HD 4870x2 run much more HOT as I already posted. I still have the HD 4870x2 and was able to cope with it even without any after market coolers.

Yes the HD 6990 is more noisy than others, most likely two or three fan cooler other than the turbo fan will solve the problem but that will turn it in 3 slot card. I'm sure they're going to be some after market coolers like that. The other solution is water cooling, something I don't like to be bothered with.

In the mean time I should not have any problem with heat, my CosmosS case is well ventilated, 200x230x30mm 900 rpm side panel intake fan blowing air right on the graphic card, I also have 3 more 120x120x25mm 1200 rpm intake fan installed and 3 x 120x120x25mm 1200 rpm exhaust fans. I believe this should make it better than open bench test.

About the noise, at one time my very sexy neighbor was politely asking if I can turn down the volume when playing games at late night. First I was thinking it was just her excuse to talk to me, like new pick up line , but just to make her happy I bought Sennheiser headphones, so that should solve the problem until I replace the cooler IF NEEDED.