OC3D Review Powercolor 6990 Crossfire

[south side sammy]

Hey 3D man.... forgot your name.... LOL.. The thing about the fan on the second card not spinning up. You look like a tinkerer. What if you made a "Y" connector for the fan power hook ups and plugged both fans into the top cards power slot........ completely by-passing the bottom one altogether ? I think that should make both fans spin at your preset fan speed.... ???

I haven't ran Xfire in many years but for a single card running in the 40% area..( fan speed ) kept the card at a constant temp while not driving you crazy from the noise. Think you might give the "Y" connector a try ?

 

[WarFox101]

My guess is the 590 will cost around $900 to $1000 .US

Now if Nvidia prices to compete with AMD it will be a big win.

 

[dipzy]

Its amazing how tom's opinions are exactly like yours.

I reckon after AMD bought ATI and dropped the ATI brand, things have been going downhill for em. Having a poor cooler on a powerful card is just a silly mistake.

GTX500 series was a big leap from the previous GTX400 series cards, AMD(ATI) 6000 series not so much of improvement over the 5000 series

For me Nvidia cards have been very solid in terms of performance and drivers so im saving for the GTX590.

 

[south side sammy]

Sounds a little high. Isn't that card a lower performing GTX570x2 ? If so I think it would be priced about the same as the 6990. Maybe even 550. Doesn't matter to me, they're both high.

 

[Game Over]

Warranties are made to be broken.

@Tom, hell of a review. I was surprised at the FarCry2 results, Im still new to all this but never would have expected that.

Is it possible in CF to disable one of the cards and just run off of one for games like FarCry2 where this would be an issue, you know, without physically disconnecting anything, a desktop menue option to run only one card or 2 with just a click?

Not that I am considering this setup,but in general.

 

[south side sammy]

actually meant $650. can't see it being more than that but i'm sure they'll try.

 

[tesla1776]

@ Dipzy,

Its amazing how tom's opinions are exactly like yours.

I reckon after AMD bought ATI and dropped the ATI brand, things have been going downhill for em. Having a poor cooler on a powerful card is just a silly mistake.

GTX500 series was a big leap from the previous GTX400 series cards, AMD(ATI) 6000 series not so much of improvement over the 5000 series

For me Nvidia cards have been very solid in terms of performance and drivers so im saving for the GTX590.

Ummm yeah, Lets see...The improvement from the 5000 series to the 6000 series was 23% in frame rates, the scaling was very much improved (20%+) and improved tessellation and features. All with less shaders and less power usage. .....now lets see...those numbers were very close to another graphics cards manufacturers new lineup...oh yeah! it was Nvidia going from the 400 series to the 500 series.

As far as "things have going downhill for them" of course! this would explain their increased market-share.

Nice try.

 

[murphy7801]

@ Dipzy,

Ummm yeah, Lets see...The improvement from the 5000 series to the 6000 series was 23% in frame rates, the scaling was very much improved (20%+) and improved tessellation and features. All with less shaders and less power usage. .....now lets see...those numbers were very close to another graphics cards manufacturers new lineup...oh yeah! it was Nvidia going from the 400 series to the 500 series.

As far as "things have going downhill for them" of course! this would explain their increased market-share.

Nice try.

Fight Fight Fight ;-)

 

[dipzy]

people have different experiences and opinions about videos cards, What i mentioned before was mine

 

[south side sammy]

I don't want to get in the middle of this but........... I will say that I am very disappointed with both camps as far as performance is concerned. They. like the CPU makers seem to be intentionally holding back to a degree. The only way to have substantial gains is to over clock any more. Not something, I think, most people can do or do successfully. Why has it taken SO LONG for a manufacturer to break the 1Ghz barrier ? Just one has done it ( Gigabyte ) straight out of the box and the newest stuff still hasn't done it. Why ?

 

[murphy7801]

I don't want to get in the middle of this but........... I will say that I am very disappointed with both camps as far as performance is concerned. They. like the CPU makers seem to be intentionally holding back to a degree. The only way to have substantial gains is to over clock any more. Not something, I think, most people can do or do successfully. Why has it taken SO LONG for a manufacturer to break the 1Ghz barrier ? Just one has done it ( Gigabyte ) straight out of the box and the newest stuff still hasn't done it. Why ?

Well its hard to make graphics cards that exceed it due to heat and nano metre restrictions on circuitry. Also cost is factor making cards like that would cost alot more.

Also had an XFX 5970 black edition and sucked so hardly chopping at the bit to use this.

 

[Rastalovich]

I don't want to get in the middle of this but........... I will say that I am very disappointed with both camps as far as performance is concerned. They. like the CPU makers seem to be intentionally holding back to a degree. The only way to have substantial gains is to over clock any more. Not something, I think, most people can do or do successfully. Why has it taken SO LONG for a manufacturer to break the 1Ghz barrier ? Just one has done it ( Gigabyte ) straight out of the box and the newest stuff still hasn't done it. Why ?

"Beat" the opponent by so many %, if the margin is too big, cut it back and keep it for next year, or a quick next gen release.

Sound familiar.

570=480, 580=480+the balance of the cores.

Switch the cooler and no-one shouts foul. There is no big story between 4xx and 5xx. A few years ago people would be crying "re-brand".

 

[sadbuttrue]

I can understand it gets frustrating, that doesn't mean you shouldn't say anything about it though.

and yup, that's mine, ESP '06 model Signature model, best guitar I've ever owned. Sound good through my VH4S too

meh. I'd be impressed if I didn't own a pre-CBS Stratocaster; sn50006, produced in Nov. 1960 according to the books.

j/k mate. Just so long as you love it and play the heck out of it it makes no difference, does it? Maybe we could jam the next time you're in Lakefield, ON, Canada.

 

[yuri04]

hehehe, very nice,

personally the problem that I have with the Strats is that first volume button placement, just killed it for me (when playing something with mutes at least). But I do really love the smoothness of the neck on the Strats. And I'll remember to give you a heads up if I'm ever heading that way

 

[w3bbo]

Nice review Bry.

Disappointing results though

 

[Goggle Eye]

Warranty depends completely on the manufacturer. While I'll personally recommend MSI because of the Twin Frozer III coolers. If you're going to use custom water cooling or Arctic Cooler VGA coolers; go for XFX because their warranty service covers removal of the stock cooler. Also comes with life time warranty.

Asus Asus, I had water blocks on two Asus 5970, Both cards went down. To much over clock. I installed the original heat sinks. RMA to Asus, they returned two 6950 HD GPU. No complaints at all. Watewr Cooling the 6950 installing them on a Asus Maximus 4 Extreme with Intel 975- I-990 Extreme CPU.

 

[godsmack_dmx]

After all the tests and benchmarks I have seen in many sites I can say that AMD still beaten Nvidia.

HD 6970 perform the same or less a little bit from GTX 580 and coast $160 less and if you get CF you will get the same or better a little bit from GTX 580 SLI.

When you com to the dual GPU the HD 6990 beaten the GTX 590 at 80% of the tests and they are the same price.

The HD 6950 coast the same like GTX 560 and give performance near or equal to GTX 570.

It's obvious that AMD walking on the right way and still having control since the HD 4000 series.

 

[godsmack_dmx]

Warranty depends completely on the manufacturer. While I'll personally recommend MSI because of the Twin Frozer III coolers. If you're going to use custom water cooling or Arctic Cooler VGA coolers; go for XFX because their warranty service covers removal of the stock cooler. Also comes with life time warranty.

I heard that XFX warranty for HD 6990 will not cover removal of the stock cooler