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The GTX 590 vs. the HD 6990 – only One is “the World’s Fastest video card”

Posted on by Posted in ABTnews, Articles, News, Technology 25 Comments



Test Configuration

Test Configuration – Hardware

  • Intel Core i7 920-reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz; 21x multiplier for 3.97 GHz, Turbo is on.
  • Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
  • 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
  • GeForce GTX 590, 3 GB reference design and clocks (605/1707 MHz; also overclocked to 690/1825MHz) supplied by Nvidia under NDA.
  • Two – GTX 560 Ti, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks (833/2004 MHz), supplied by Galaxy/Nvidia
  • GeForce GTX 570, 1.2 GB reference design and clocks (732/1900 MHz), supplied by Nvidia.
  • Two – GeForce GTX 580; 1.5 GB, (at reference clocks 772/2004 MHz; also under-clocked to 605/1707MHz) supplied by Nvidia
  • ATI Radeon HD 6990 (4GB, reference clocks, 830/1250 MHz; also overclocked to 960/1390) supplied by AMD
  • ATI Radeon HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks, 880/1370 MHz; also flashed to stock HD 6970) supplied by AMD
  • ATI Radeon HD 6950 (2GB 800/1250 MHz) suppliedby AMD
  • Two – ATi Radeon HD 6870 (1GB, reference clocks, 900/1050 MHz) supplied by AMD
  • Onboard Realtek Audio
  • Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
  • Two – Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
  • Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
  • Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
  • Philips DVD SATA writer
  • HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD; ASUS VG236 120Hz 1920×1080 twenty-three inch LCD with 3D Vision kit supplied by Nvidia/ASUS for 3D Vision evaluation.

Test Configuration – Software

  • ATi Catalyst 11.2 WHQL driver for all Radeons except for HD 6990/HD 6970 (11-4 release/beta); latest CrossFire profiles; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; surface performance optimizations are off; “use applications settings” are checked
  • NVIDIA GeForce release candidate 267.71 for GTX 590 and under-clocked GTX 580 SLI pair; WHQL 266.58 used for the other GeForce cards. High Quality
  • Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
  • DirectX July/November 2010
  • All games are patched to their latest versions.
  • vsync is forced off in the control panel.
  • Varying AA enabled as noted in games and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3 ; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
  • All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
  • Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
  • Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

  • Vantage
  • 3DMark11
  • F.E.A.R.
  • X3:Terran Conflict
  • Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  • Call of Duty 4
  • Unreal Tournament 3
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
  • Wolfenstein
  • Left 4 Dead
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Mafia II
  • Call of Juarez
  • Crysis
  • Warhead
  • Lost Planet
  • World in Conflict
  • Far Cry 2
  • Just Cause 2
  • H.A.W.X.
  • Resident Evil 5
  • Alien vs. Predator
  • Battleforge
  • STALKER, Call of Pripyat
  • Dirt 2
  • F1 2010
  • Metro 2033
  • Lost Planet 2
  • H.A.W.X. 2
  • Heaven 2

We have got an interesting project going. Let’s check our results and see if we can determine which card can wear “the world’s fastest video card” crown.

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  • Ocre

    This review was so absolutely great. Miles above the Anand’s 10 games. I really really think you go above and beyond. One of the few places you can get a full review anymore. Such a great collection of data! Most sites do a handful of games and there is no way anyone could get a true picture. Most sites have diminished their launch articles to a point of incompleteness. Where one has to go somewhere else to get a full picture.

    Apoppin, i know its a lot of work for you, but i commend you for your dedication to all the data. Yours again is the most useful especially on a card that is so close in performance to the competitors. I cannot thank you enough for a fantastic article!

  • insurgent

    Very nice in-depth review, bookmarking the site now! Thank you for your hard work!

  • chris

    I love ABT reviews. They always seem to be pretty fair when it comes to in-depth testing. Keep up the good work guys. Really. I mean that. I plan to work for one of the many review sites when i finish my CE degree, and ABT is high on the list.

  • El_Member

    I’m impressed that Nvidia beat ATI in cooling with their dual GPU. It’s usually the opposite.

    It is nice to see the cost for both cards is about the same which gives more choices for the consumers to pick from.

    Nice Job!

  • El_Member

    Also a small note:

    When I click “View All” it doesn’t work, could you guys get it fixed?

  • http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3 apoppin

    Our web master is aware of this issue and is working on it.

    Thank-you all for your comments!

  • Jarrod

    The HD 6990 is honored under warranty by most vendors with the OC switch. So I’m quite puzzled why you OC’d the 590 and kept the 6990 the same.

  • http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3 apoppin

    If you want to see the HD 6990 tested with the BIOS position No. 2, please check out our HD 6990 launch article:
    http://alienbabeltech.com/main/introducing-the-worlds-fastest-graphics-card-amds-flagship-hd-6990
    The same settings were used and now you have both settings completely covered.

    You will also note in the Performance Summary of this GTX 580 launch article that we pitted our overclocked HD 6990 (960/1390MHz) against our overclocked GTX 580 (690/1825Mhz)

    I believe we covered all of the bases.

  • Jarrod

    You pointed out that bios switch 2 was tested in another review. But that does not answer why it was not tested in this review side by side with the 590(I hope that was not your answer as to why). Just saying it’s a bit weird you throw in a bunch of old games one being from 2005, but not test something most 6990 owners would be using.

  • http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3 apoppin

    BIOS position No. 2 was tested in the review immediately preceding this one and anyone can easily check the performance difference:

    http://alienbabeltech.com/main/introducing-the-worlds-fastest-graphics-card-amds-flagship-hd-6990

    The launch article about the GTX 590 tested the stock GTX 590 against the stock HD 6990. Then we tested the overclocked GTX 590 and the overclocked HD 6990 – both overclocked as far as they would go – the 6990 being overvolted in the BIOS No. 2 position and the GTX 590 at stock voltage.

    Including a third set of Radeon slightly-overclocked numbers would have cluttered the charts and taken precious extra time that was spent in benching. Especially because these figures are easily found in the previous article that were tested at the same settings and with the same drivers.

    We don’t “throw in” a bunch of old games at random. We have been following many of these games for nearly three years – when some were only a couple of years old and many top cards struggled with them – and our regular readers appreciate it. We also include a good mix of new games and are always adding more. Next added will be Bulletstorm and Shogun 2 and of course Crysis 2 when it fully debugged and running on the DX11 pathway.

  • Arjun

    magnificent review

  • http://www.sagebrushfire.com Sage

    This wasn’t a terrible review but it was definitely biased towards nVidia.

    In the Metro 2033 section you actually claim that the GTX 590 “Beats” the Radeon 6990 with 39.48 FPS vs. 39.2 FPS. You even used an exclaimation point!

    Comparisons within 3-6 FPS are inconclusive, let alone 0.3 FPS! Calling that any kind of defenative win is just absurd and proves you’re milking every possible edge the 590 might have.

    Don’t get me wrong; I’m using an nVidia card right now (Good ol’ GTX 460 SC) but I appreciate that both companies make stellar cards and it’s only fair to try and be unbiased as a reviewer since GPU consumers tend to be so polarized.

    Ultimately nVidia tends to have a slight performance edge and AMD tends to have a price edge. The only things that really make each company’s cards unique are special features like CUDA and Eyefinity.

  • Magnus

    I dont think the 590 or equivelent is such a big step from the card I have (the 480) for me really to be that excited.
    The step from 8800gtx to gtx480 was a really huge step tho (3x the improvement) like this is more like .5x the improvement, so I dont really give a shit.

    Sorry for mentioning all those nvidia cards, but its what I purchase, I work with CUDA for my gpgpu programming, so maybe even im a little biased, but opencl is what you use for amd cards, and its just as good.

  • Wind

    Way too many comparisons of other GPUs, it’s 590 vs 6990, remember? I was all confused with the color schemes on the graphs.

  • maniac

    I know quite a little about gfxcards so I didnt find answers why nVidia is better in some games and AMD in other games? Directx vs opengl? I play only Waw, BO, ET and Brink so I still dont know do I buy next 580, 590, 6970 or 6990. I have now 570 SLI but somehow my computer doesnt work well when SLI is on so single card is the solution. But which one?

  • http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3 apoppin

    I would highly recommend that you ask you question in our forum. You will get good information there and far more detail than from comments here.

    SLI should work well if you have a SLI MB. And there are many reasons why Nvidia is better in some games and AMD in others.

    http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/

  • Ryan

    Would it be possible to get a copy/screenshots of the current bios setting using during the tests?

  • Inamorta

    Wicked not biased review. Not.

  • najeeb

    what kind of a joke is this? , we are compareing over all proformance , why the HELL is phyx disabled ? , it is fair because its an official feature of nvidia , if amd does not have it , its not nvidias fault , we want an answer , it looked like u guys wanted nvidia to look slow or someting ?

  • http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3 apoppin

    There is no other way to compare performance directly.

    How many PhysX games are we comparing? Two out of nearly thirty games. Just ignore those results and look at the rest of the review. We test about 3 times more games than any other tech site.

  • Dreamwalker

    @najeeb what kind of joke are you on about? physx makes Nvidia cards slower in performance if turned on, if physx was on it’d be unfair to Nvidia right? In your case you should say “It actually seems like they’re trying to make Nvidia cards look faster than the AMD counterparts by disabling certain features.”

  • iminuru

    Wow that was extremely bias. Xbitlabs.com comparison was perfect.

  • Deckard Cain

    I just watched an youtube video comparing both cards and Radeon uses a lot less power from psu and gave a better or equal fps result than Nvidia. Others reviews compare both cards to be equivalent. I think this review is very outsiders and biased.

  • Soon Titlow

    Definitely appreciate you discussing this article. Great!!

  • diablo3

    I certainly enjoyed the way you explore your experience and knowledge of the subject! Keep up on it. Thanks for sharing the info!