Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 – Excellent Performance
The real question that matters with the GTX 590, nevertheless, is its performance. And there is no obtaining across the fact the GTX 590′s is excellent. What it is not, however, is regularly better than that with the 6990.
In only two of our DX11 gaming tests did the GTX 590 outperform the 6990. In Misplaced Planet two, the GTX 590 earned 68.9 fps at 1,920 by one,200 (in comparison with 51.five fps and 53.4 fps for the 6990) and 51.seven at two,560 by 1,600 (in comparison with 42 fps and 43.6 fps). In H.A.W.X. 2, the GTX 590 nabbed 198 frames per 2nd (fps) at one,920 by 1,200 and 139 fps at 2,560 by 1,600, compared to 161 fps and 116 fps at one,920 by one,200 (at the base clock) and 162 fps and 117 fps (when the 6990′s overclocking switch was enabled)-but using the body prices currently so higher for each cards, Nvidia’s victories imply a little less. (The GTX 590 also just barely edged out the 6990 within our one,920-by-1,200 Heaven Benchmark test, earning 48.8 fps towards the overclocked 6990′s 48.five fps.)
Otherwise, the 6990 arrived out on top again and again. The GTX 590 earned 8,629 in 3DMark 11 on the Performance preset; the 6990 earned eight,901 and 9,175 based on the overclocking change; in the Intense preset, it had been two,993 vs . three,285 and three,419. In Aliens vs. Predator, the GTX 590′s 67 fps at 1,920 by 1,200 was outshone by the 6990 earning 77.2 fps and 79.9 fps; at 2,560 by one,600, the GTX 590′s 43.five fps did not really evaluate with the 48.four fps and 50.five fps with the 6990. The GTX 590 arrived in considerably under in Just Trigger 2, with outcomes of 42.eight fps and 33.9 fps at both resolutions; the 6990 earned 68.42 fps and 70.21 fps (one,920 by one,200) and 48.72 fps and fifty.58 fps (two,560 by one,600). Metro 2033 was nearer: 47.67 fps and 29.67 fps for Nvidia, and 54.33 and 52.67 (one,920 by one,200) and 35 and 35.33 (2,560 by 1,600) for the 6990. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat showed an even narrower margin, with only the overclocked 6990 (94.5 fps) beating the GTX 590 (92.two fps) at 1,920 by 1,200 (at base speed, the 6990 managed 91.two fps), but each clock speeds besting the GTX 590 at 2,560 by one,600 (61.45 and 64.25 versus 59.15).
As for power use, Nvidia has made a lot of strides-but apparently not really enough to even score a definitive win there. While idling within our test-bed desktop, the 6990 makes use of 148-149 watts (the overclock change can make a negligible distinction), and also the GTX 590 160 watts. Under load, inside a variation on our Metro 2033 benchmark and measured with an Extech Datalogger, things acquired somewhat more fascinating. At its base clock pace, the 6990-equipped system was the winner, at 413 watts. But once the 6990′s overclocking switch was enabled, its system used functionally the same amount of power because the GTX 590′s: about 446 watts.
Where the GTX 590 demonstrably shines compared to AMD’s 6990 is in terms of noise. We found AMD’s card loud towards the stage of distraction, especially when playing games at high resolutions and detail settings. We cannot lie and say we could not listen to the GTX 590-it was definitely detectable when it had been working most seriously, even inside a closed case. However the sound it produced usually struck us as inside acceptable limits in a way the 6990′s is not.
The battle between the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 and AMD Radeon HD 6990 is by far probably the most interesting we’ve observed in this era of video clip cards. Though both are outrageously (if understandably) expensive, every provides distinctive reasons you might want to choose it. We love Nvidia’s commitment to keeping noise ranges down (the common gaming PCs we build around right here are loud enough as it is!), and prefer the three-DVI-port answer for multimonitor to AMD’s adapter-heavy approach. All things regarded as, nevertheless, for $700, performance is exactly where it is at. The 6990, usually both with and without its overclocking change activated, turns in more extraordinary results just a little much more often-so we need to give it just the slightest edge if a single-slot, dual-GPU card is what you’re shopping for. You can’t go incorrect with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590-but unless of course noise is your chief problem, you can go just a bit righter with the AMD Radeon HD 6990.
The GTX 590 is, however, full of power. You would anticipate that from any two-GPU card in general-the last one Nvidia released was the GTX 295, in early 2009-and especially from 1 that basically fuses two powerful GF110 GPUs (the type utilized within the GTX 580). It sports a complete of 1,024 CUDA processing cores, 128 texture units, 96 ROP models, and 32 tessellation engines for generating the most of 1 of probably the most sought-after DirectX eleven (DX11) features. The card’s graphics clock runs at 607 MHz, its processor clock at 1,215 MHz, and its memory clock at 3,414 MHz. It’s loaded with 3,072MB of GDDR5 memory for the body buffer, which operates more than a 384-bit memory interface.
In addition to the other Fermi improvements that were launched last era on the GTX 480, the GTX 590 also sports design changes implemented for the 500 series. These include vapor chamber cooling (one chamber per GPU), power management functions to safeguard the card from undue throttling in stress-test apps, along with a combine of transistors that result in much better power efficiency. All the usual Nvidia technologies are supported: CUDA parallel processing, PhysX physics processing (although the GTX 590 has the advantage of being in a position to dedicate one GPU strictly to PhysX, which is a nice touch), and 3D Vision for stereoscopic 3D gaming.
As with every high-performance card, there may be some steep barriers to entry aside from the price. Because the GTX 590 includes a TDP of 365 watts, you’ll need a beefy energy provide to handle it-Nvidia suggests at least 700 watts, and it’ll need to have a minimum of two free eight-pin power connectors. (Assuming you’ve a energy supply that will pull a minimum of one,100 watts, and sufficient extra dough in your financial institution account, you’ve the choice of linking to GTX 590 cards inside a Quad SLI configuration for even more insane efficiency.)
Predictably, the GTX 590 blocks a second growth slot because of the size of its warmth sink, but 1 welcome shock is its length: At just 11.5 inches, the GTX 590 is designed to fit in a wider variety of cases than either AMD’s 6990 or its previous performance champ, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, each of which measure 12.5 inches in duration. In addition, it has an unusual collection of output connectors: 3 dual-link DVI and 1 Mini DisplayPort. This makes it simple to connect up to three typical monitors at a time (for use with Nvidia Surround display-spanning technologies), with out needing to shell out extra for adapters as you might have to with the 6990 (which technically supports five monitors, by way of one DVI and 4 Mini DisplayPort jacks).
The real question that matters with the GTX 590, nevertheless, is its performance. And there is no obtaining across the fact the GTX 590′s is excellent. What it is not, however, is regularly better than that with the 6990.
In only two of our DX11 gaming tests did the GTX 590 outperform the 6990. In Misplaced Planet two, the GTX 590 earned 68.9 fps at 1,920 by one,200 (in comparison with 51.five fps and 53.4 fps for the 6990) and 51.seven at two,560 by 1,600 (in comparison with 42 fps and 43.6 fps). In H.A.W.X. 2, the GTX 590 nabbed 198 frames per 2nd (fps) at one,920 by 1,200 and 139 fps at 2,560 by 1,600, compared to 161 fps and 116 fps at one,920 by one,200 (at the base clock) and 162 fps and 117 fps (when the 6990′s overclocking switch was enabled)-but using the body prices currently so higher for each cards, Nvidia’s victories imply a little less. (The GTX 590 also just barely edged out the 6990 within our one,920-by-1,200 Heaven Benchmark test, earning 48.8 fps towards the overclocked 6990′s 48.five fps.)
Otherwise, the 6990 arrived out on top again and again. The GTX 590 earned 8,629 in 3DMark 11 on the Performance preset; the 6990 earned eight,901 and 9,175 based on the overclocking change; in the Intense preset, it had been two,993 vs . three,285 and three,419. In Aliens vs. Predator, the GTX 590′s 67 fps at 1,920 by 1,200 was outshone by the 6990 earning 77.2 fps and 79.9 fps; at 2,560 by one,600, the GTX 590′s 43.five fps did not really evaluate with the 48.four fps and 50.five fps with the 6990. The GTX 590 arrived in considerably under in Just Trigger 2, with outcomes of 42.eight fps and 33.9 fps at both resolutions; the 6990 earned 68.42 fps and 70.21 fps (one,920 by one,200) and 48.72 fps and fifty.58 fps (two,560 by one,600). Metro 2033 was nearer: 47.67 fps and 29.67 fps for Nvidia, and 54.33 and 52.67 (one,920 by one,200) and 35 and 35.33 (2,560 by 1,600) for the 6990. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat showed an even narrower margin, with only the overclocked 6990 (94.5 fps) beating the GTX 590 (92.two fps) at 1,920 by 1,200 (at base speed, the 6990 managed 91.two fps), but each clock speeds besting the GTX 590 at 2,560 by one,600 (61.45 and 64.25 versus 59.15).
As for power use, Nvidia has made a lot of strides-but apparently not really enough to even score a definitive win there. While idling within our test-bed desktop, the 6990 makes use of 148-149 watts (the overclock change can make a negligible distinction), and also the GTX 590 160 watts. Under load, inside a variation on our Metro 2033 benchmark and measured with an Extech Datalogger, things acquired somewhat more fascinating. At its base clock pace, the 6990-equipped system was the winner, at 413 watts. But once the 6990′s overclocking switch was enabled, its system used functionally the same amount of power because the GTX 590′s: about 446 watts.
Where the GTX 590 demonstrably shines compared to AMD’s 6990 is in terms of noise. We found AMD’s card loud towards the stage of distraction, especially when playing games at high resolutions and detail settings. We cannot lie and say we could not listen to the GTX 590-it was definitely detectable when it had been working most seriously, even inside a closed case. However the sound it produced usually struck us as inside acceptable limits in a way the 6990′s is not.
The battle between the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 and AMD Radeon HD 6990 is by far probably the most interesting we’ve observed in this era of video clip cards. Though both are outrageously (if understandably) expensive, every provides distinctive reasons you might want to choose it. We love Nvidia’s commitment to keeping noise ranges down (the common gaming PCs we build around right here are loud enough as it is!), and prefer the three-DVI-port answer for multimonitor to AMD’s adapter-heavy approach. All things regarded as, nevertheless, for $700, performance is exactly where it is at. The 6990, usually both with and without its overclocking change activated, turns in more extraordinary results just a little much more often-so we need to give it just the slightest edge if a single-slot, dual-GPU card is what you’re shopping for. You can’t go incorrect with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590-but unless of course noise is your chief problem, you can go just a bit righter with the AMD Radeon HD 6990.
The GTX 590 is, however, full of power. You would anticipate that from any two-GPU card in general-the last one Nvidia released was the GTX 295, in early 2009-and especially from 1 that basically fuses two powerful GF110 GPUs (the type utilized within the GTX 580). It sports a complete of 1,024 CUDA processing cores, 128 texture units, 96 ROP models, and 32 tessellation engines for generating the most of 1 of probably the most sought-after DirectX eleven (DX11) features. The card’s graphics clock runs at 607 MHz, its processor clock at 1,215 MHz, and its memory clock at 3,414 MHz. It’s loaded with 3,072MB of GDDR5 memory for the body buffer, which operates more than a 384-bit memory interface.
In addition to the other Fermi improvements that were launched last era on the GTX 480, the GTX 590 also sports design changes implemented for the 500 series. These include vapor chamber cooling (one chamber per GPU), power management functions to safeguard the card from undue throttling in stress-test apps, along with a combine of transistors that result in much better power efficiency. All the usual Nvidia technologies are supported: CUDA parallel processing, PhysX physics processing (although the GTX 590 has the advantage of being in a position to dedicate one GPU strictly to PhysX, which is a nice touch), and 3D Vision for stereoscopic 3D gaming.
As with every high-performance card, there may be some steep barriers to entry aside from the price. Because the GTX 590 includes a TDP of 365 watts, you’ll need a beefy energy provide to handle it-Nvidia suggests at least 700 watts, and it’ll need to have a minimum of two free eight-pin power connectors. (Assuming you’ve a energy supply that will pull a minimum of one,100 watts, and sufficient extra dough in your financial institution account, you’ve the choice of linking to GTX 590 cards inside a Quad SLI configuration for even more insane efficiency.)
Predictably, the GTX 590 blocks a second growth slot because of the size of its warmth sink, but 1 welcome shock is its length: At just 11.5 inches, the GTX 590 is designed to fit in a wider variety of cases than either AMD’s 6990 or its previous performance champ, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, each of which measure 12.5 inches in duration. In addition, it has an unusual collection of output connectors: 3 dual-link DVI and 1 Mini DisplayPort. This makes it simple to connect up to three typical monitors at a time (for use with Nvidia Surround display-spanning technologies), with out needing to shell out extra for adapters as you might have to with the 6990 (which technically supports five monitors, by way of one DVI and 4 Mini DisplayPort jacks).
