GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6990 Face Off 124
Vigile writes "Both NVIDIA and AMD have recently released new extreme-high-end graphics cards with dual-GPU configurations and PC Perspective has compared them to each other with some standard SLI/CrossFire comparisons for good measure. The GTX 590 is a pair of 512 shader processor GF110 GPUs which had the potential to be the fastest combination available, but the clock speeds were lowered to such a level that is has trouble keeping up with AMD's Radeon HD 6990. Sound levels were noticeably better on NVIDIA's option though the Radeon card provided better frame rates at the highest resolutions. So, while the $700 video card market just got a pair of new competitors, the best investment for that money might still be two less expensive Radeon or GeForce single-GPU cards."
Hijacking the topic... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to hijack the topic a little bit in order to ask a question because i don't have the time to bust out the google-fu and dig in for some serious research right now.
The last time i really looked into the matter was 5-ish years ago, and the conclusion i came to was that radeons had slightly better hardware, but nvidia's drivers were so far superior that this theoretical lead was completely obliterated. Is this still true? (No die-hard brand shilling here please - i'd like to hear from people who at least think they can be impartial.)
Re:Silent cards? (Score:3, Interesting)
I just got a 5770, and stay away from it. It turns out the thing has a lot of screen flicker bugs in 2D mode. After Googling it, the bug has been around since about December and remains unfixed. I'm going to RMA this thing and start the video-card search all over again...
Additional Coverage Here (Score:4, Interesting)
Even in heavier DX11 titles, the cards are not quite up to par with the Radeon HD 6990: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-590-Dual-GF110s-One-PCB/?page=8 [hothardware.com]
Re:Bang for your Buck (Score:4, Interesting)
HD5970s are being bought up by over-optimistic Bitcoin miners. They currently run for ~$700. Why not buy two HD5870s (each at ~$250) and use Crossfire. They're less than half the price and more than half the performance.