Reviews - AMD Radeon HD 6990 4GB graphics card reviewed and rated

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Attack of the Antilles. Make way for a new champ.

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Read more.

Nice review as usual Tarinder. One question though - did you notice any microstutter at all, as per the norm with dual gpu cards?

On the card itself, just too big and power hungry for me and no doubt nVidia has something equally "impressive" up their sleeves but I'll happily pass both for a single gpu card.

any results vs CF 6970/6950 sli 560/70/80?

say again whats the limit for pci-e spec? 300w? so at stock this card is not pci-e compliant.


nice -

who pays for any damage that could possibly occur?

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Originally Posted by HalloweenJack

say again whats the limit for pci-e spec? 300w? so at stock this card is not pci-e compliant.


nice -

who pays for any damage that could possibly occur?

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You have to remember that the PCIe slot on the motherboard can provide 150W on newer motherboards.

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Originally Posted by shaffaaf27

any results vs CF 6970/6950 sli 560/70/80?

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Yup, noted. We had a very, very short space of time to test this card (don't ask!) and it wasn't possible to include these results in the initial review. However, we are working on them and will have them ready for the Next Big Thing to hit the labs.

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The two GPUs sit slightly offset one another, most likely due to AMD needing room to house two 8-pin power connectors.

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That's possibly an overriding reason, but the offset looks like it's also due to them rotating the second GPU 180 degrees (note inverted memory chip layout as well) - which makes sense if you've got an interconnect coming off one side of the chip - without having to create two versions of chips you have to rotate one 180 degrees to bring the interconnect to face the other ;)

Great review as usual Tarinder :)

And what a card! Looks like COD is beginning to be CPU limited at lower resolutions.

nVidia's Next Big Thing is going to have to come close to 580SLI performance to definitively beat it - power and cooling seems to be the battleground in how much you have to restrict these dual GPU cards!

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Originally Posted by Tarinder

You have to remember that the PCIe slot on the motherboard can provide 150W on newer motherboards.

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8pin connectors provide 150W each, so this card only has to draw 75W from PCIe slot on the motherboard at default settings, all within individual PCIe specifications (even if overall it breaches the 300W specification).

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Originally Posted by Tarinder

You have to remember that the PCIe slot on the motherboard can provide 150W on newer motherboards.

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doesnt matter - the 300W Card Electro-mechanical specification (as part of pci-sig) is the headline limit here, and go over that and your not pcie 2.0 compliant , pcie 3.0 doesn change the headline power.

Another great review. Thanks. :)
My only possible quibble would be 1) How did you get 11.4 drivers ? and 2) Some CF comparison in the tables would be useful on a twin GPU basis. The costs are in the same bracket as well.

Temps (and of course performance) look good but oh my jesus that furmark load power consumption!

Are those 'bladeles' fans really the best option on this sort of card, how's the performance compared to standard finned fans?

That said it destroys Crysis, you're no longer allowed to say 'the game that brings all GPUs to their knees' ! :D

Excellent review.

How ludicrous that you void your warranty by using the "awesome switch" though.

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Originally Posted by AMD's Website

Break barriers. Crush records. Flip the Unlocking Switch and take your AMD Radeon™ HD 6990 beyond the bleeding edge. (Footnote 8)

Footnote 8: AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when overclocking is enabled via AMD software.

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What is the point of having a switch that will void your warranty?

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Originally Posted by GheeTsar

Excellent review.

How ludicrous that you void your warranty by using the "awesome switch" though.



What is the point of having a switch that will void your warranty?

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Same reason Catalyst contains overclock controls that void your warranty and has done for years - because users asked for it.

Anyway, technically it's not voiding the warranty, just providing an exemption. You are still covered when using it at normal speeds afterwards, so long as you don't damage it while overclocking.

its `damages` - meaning they know that `flipping the switch` enables the card to go way beyond pcie 2.0 power spec - which in theory could then damage the rest of your system - pulling too much power and knocking the psu out for example. so the disclaimer is that - any damage caused ( for exampleby going beyond pcie spec) is therefore down to the end user.

Way too Noisy, should have had a better cooler/fan arrangement

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Originally Posted by Taurus

Way too Noisy, should have had a better cooler/fan arrangement

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Such as?