In March-April AMD And NVIDIA They decided to finally figure out which of them makes the fastest video cards in the world: first appeared on sale Radeon HD 6990 , And behind her, with a difference of two weeks, GTX 590. We took out on tests and staged a battle for the title of champion.
AMD Radeon HD 6990
Let's start with AMD. The scheme here is standard. At first – an inexpensive, but effective processor, a new series of video cards, a loss of expensive and hot flagships NVIDIA. Then – a large piece of textolite, a couple of fresh processors, a double memory set and first place in tests. So it was with HD 3870 x2 , HD 4870 x2 , HD 5970 And now with HD 6990.
Multiplication
You can not even talk about technical characteristics: open a sign by HD 6970 And multiply everything by two. And although AMD says that HD 6990 has a new processor Antilles , Do not believe. Old acquaintances await us on the board – two Cayman on architecture Vliw4 : 384 SIMD assassin with four streaming processors in each, 96 texture engines and 32 ROP. As a result, 3072 nuclei, 192 TMU and 64 of the Rasterization unit.
The main problem of double video cards, energy consumption, in AMD they decided in an original way – ignored. If the HD 5970 still tried to fit into the framework of “up to 300 W”, then HD 6990 in standard mode consumes 375 watts, and in particularly severe cases, burns up to 450 watts!
But, as they say, there is no thin one without good. Forgetting Galaxy Spins Casino about gluttony, AMD did not limit itself to choosing frequencies. HD 6990 processors operate only 50 MHz slower HD 6970 – 830 MHz. And the video memory lost only 500 MHz – from 5500 to 5000 MHz. Impressive? Yes, not the right word, especially if you know that this is not the only mode of operation.
Like all generation HD 69×0 , The new flagship is equipped with two BIOS. One click of a lever located next to the Crossfire ports – and HD 6990 processors go to native 880 MHz. AMD, of course, does not recommend this operating mode and even deprives the guarantee when it is turned on, but it is impossible to resist the temptation and not try Cayman in all its glory.
Stormite
The cooling of such a monster is a separate story. In the case of HD 6990, a traditional turbine with a fan at the end did not work; When approaching the distant processor, the air was so heated so much that there was no sense from blowing. I had to change the whole system.
Processors and memory smashed at the long -range ends of the board. They put on crystals on an evaporative chamber with a copper base and an aluminum radiator. In the middle, a set of nutrients and the PLX bridge was placed in the middle. All this was covered with a deaf metal casing and in the center they put a high -pressure centrifugal fan: a cylinder with blades wrapped inward. This drags the air under the casing and directs it in the perpendicular direction, that is, to the radiators. In addition, the lower part of the board was closed with an aluminum plate, which removes heat from memory chips.
Helps the active system and technology AMD PowerTune : special sensors monitor the loading of the crystal and reduce its frequency with a possible overheating. The operation takes a share of a second and does not affect the average fps.
Bar
Design HD 6990 – Copy HD 6970. The entire surface is closed by an angular black casing with red layers and AMD proprietary airbrushing. But the dimensions of the cards are different. As with HD 5970, with HD 6990 AMD engineers did not fit in standard 28 cm. Length HD 6990 – 31.7 cm.
Under the video outputs, AMD selected one slot – the second is used for ejecting hot air. In order not to leave us with a pair of DVI and the lonely mini-hdmi, engineers installed one DVI in a row and four Mini Displayport at once. Mini DisplayPort-to-DVI and one Mini DisplayPort-to-Hdmi were obliged to include the manufacturers. For the work of HD 6990 you need two 8-pin for plugs from the power supply.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590
If we knew about HD 6990 from HD presentation 6850 (double board flickered on slides), then in the fact that the market will appear GTX 590 , They doubted the last. A pair of burning GF110 and on one board – it was even difficult to imagine this. But the task is completed, and on the GTX 590 there are two top -end Fermi : 1024 CUDA YARA, 32 Tessellation engines, 128 texture blocks, 96 ROP and 3 GB of video memory.
How Nvidia solved the problem with energy consumption? Yes, just like AMD, I forgot about her. Under load GTX 590 consumes 365 watts. But if the AMD in its 375 W washing Cayman with a loss of only 50 MHz, then Nvidia reduced the speed of 165 MHz – from 772 to 607 MHz.
So far, sandwich
In the GTX 590, NVIDIA engineers refused to design the “sandwich” type – with two boards and cooler between them. GTX 590, like AMD, occupies one piece of textolite. Only by dimensions is it closer to standard flagships – 28 cm.
The cooling system is similar to the HD 6990 system. Crystals are spaced at the long -range ends of the board and covered with evaporating cameras, between them is the SLI bridge and the nutritional elements. The entire surface is closed with a plastic casing, and a fan is installed in the middle. This time simple, not cylindrical. The lower part is closed by an aluminum plate.
Set of connectors Standard – three DVI and one Mini DisplayPort. For power, you need two 8-pin forks.
Search
It was not easy to get new video cards for tests. The boards of a similar level are produced by limited edition, and at the time of starting them in the afternoon with fire you will not find. Fortunately, AMD helped us with HD 6990, and GTX 590 sent Zotac. True, they provided us for only a day, so the list of tests had to be reduced great: we drove off 3DMark Vantage , Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 , Resident Evil 5 , Devil May Cry 4 , Lost Planet 2 And Aliens vs. Predator.
Cards on the motherboard were tested MSI X58 Platinum with an installed processor Core i7-920 and three RAM strips Kingston Hyperx DDR3-1666 2 GB each. Bloc was combined for food Hiper K900 , The operating system is installed on the computer – Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Also participated in the test GeForce GTX 580 , Radeon HD 5970 And HD 6970. The flagship from AMD, Radeon HD 6990, were driven in two modes – 830 and 880 MHz.
The first of April
3DMark Vantage maps passed the nostril in the nostril-the difference is 2% in favor of the "green". In Unitine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 The situation repeated: without acceleration HD 6990 lagged behind GTX 590 by only 5%, and at a frequency of 880 MHz reduced the gap to 1%. Draw? Yes, no matter how.
For the first game test, Resident Evil 5, the video cards were too fast, the benchmark rested on the processor performance and showed almost the same results on all boards. Only the dispersed HD 6990 stood out: she lost to herself at standard frequencies.
The fun began in Devil May Cry 4. The test has always distinguished independence from the central processor and the emphasis in the video card. And although he could not determine the resolution of 1920×1080, the results are impressive. GTX 590 showed outstanding 262.7 fps. The flagship from AMD without overclocking scored 287.1 FPS, and at a frequency of 880 MHz – 288.9 FPS.
HD 6990 did not give in to DX11. Four Tessellation engines on two Cayman turned out to be faster than 32 Polymorph Engine on the GF110 pair. In Aliens vs. Predator HD 6990 Map stably brought GTX 590 at 10-14 FPS and was able to escape forward by 14%.
About the Lost Planet 2 test, I must say separately. Initially, we did not want to add it to our list. This benchmark, like Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 , Optimized for NVIDIA cards. And GeForce in it is steadily 25-30% faster than Radeon. But after a devastating account in Aliens vs. Predator became interested in how Nvidia will show himself in his native test. Bottom line – 1% lag behind Radeon HD 6990.
Explain the results is simple. GTX 590 has too low frequencies. Look at the GTX 580: one GF110, but at 772 MHz, only 16% slower than two processors for 607 MHz. Simple and cold AMD chips proved to be much better, the difference with HD 6970 – 38%.
Podium
Officially, both fees should cost 19,800 rubles, but in Russia prices dictate retail. For Radeon HD 6990 they ask for from 24,500 rubles. GTX 590 at the time of delivery of the number was not really sold, and those few stores that were still offered were asked from 26,000 to 30,000 rubles. Honestly, buy these cards for such prices – it makes no sense. For the same money, it is more reasonable to take a pair of HD 6970 or GTX 580. And the performance is higher, and the noise is less. The latter especially applies to HD 6990: the cylindrical fan is already not different, and even on the flagship AMD accelerates and completely to space speeds.
* * *
Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590 – primarily image products, it is they who will sell the middle segment and in every possible way strengthen the reputation of the manufacturer. Who won today's struggle? From a practical point of view, of course, GTX 590: to present a roaring as a plane HD 6990 on a home computer. But from a technical point of view, the AMD board is an unconditional favorite. And yes! We officially declare: AMD makes the fastest video cards in the world.
AMD Radeon HD 6990
Pros:
- Best performance
- Two operating modes
- native frequencies for Cayman
Cons:
- Huge energy consumption
- Too noisy fan
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590
Pros:
- A quiet cooling system
- Decent performance
- Physx
Cons:
- The frequencies are strongly underestimated
- Huge energy consumption
Table 1
Technical characteristics
Characteristic Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 AMD Radeon HD 6990 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 AMD Radeon HD 6970 AMD Radeon HD 5970
2x GF110 Antilles GF110 Cayman Hemlock
The number of transistors is 2x 3 billion 2x 2.64 billion 3 billion 2.64 billion 2x 2.15 billion
Process process 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm 40-nm
The number of stream processors 2x 512 pcs. 2x 1536 pcs. 512 pcs. 1536 pcs. 2x 1600 pcs.
The frequency of the graphic nucleus 607 MHz 830 (880) MHz 772 MHz 880 MHz 725 MHz
Frequency of stream processors 1215 MHz 830 (880) MHz 1544 MHz 880 MHz 725 MHz
Type, GDDR5 3 GB GDDR5 4 GB GDDR5 1.5 GB GDDR5 2 GB GDDR5 2 GB 2 GB
Memory frequency 3414 MHz 5000 MHz 4008 MHz 5500 MHz 4000 MHz
Data bus 2x 384 bits 2x 256 bits 384 bits 256 bits 2x 256 bits
The number of texture blocks is 2x 64 pcs. 2x 96 pcs. 64 pcs. 96 pcs. 2x 80 pcs.
The number of rasterization blocks 2x 48 pcs. 2x 32 pcs. 48 pcs. 32 pcs. 2x 32 pcs.
Energy consumption 365 W 375 (450) W 244 W 250 W 294 W
The length of the board is 28 cm 31.7 cm 26.7 cm 27.4 cm 31.7 cm
PCIe 2 interface.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16 PCIE 2.0 x16
The price for April 2011 from 26,000 rubles from 24,500 rubles from 13,000 rubles from 10,000 rubles from 18,000 rubles
Table 2
Synthetic tests
3DMark Vantage
The model of the video card GPU CPU Overall Performance ratio
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 29 258 17 283 24 938 100%
AMD Radeon HD 6990 (830/5000 MHz) 28 776 17 396 24 732 98%
AMD Radeon HD 6990 (880/5000 MHz) 28 598 17 393 24 631 98%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 22 468 17 271 20 896 77%
AMD Radeon HD 6970 19 098 175 18 578 65%
AMD Radeon HD 5970 21 848 17 347 20 517 75%
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0
The model of the video card Fps Overall Performance ratio
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 49.7 1251 100%
AMD Radeon HD 6990 (830/5000 MHz) 47.2 1189 95%
AMD Radeon HD 6990 (880/5000 MHz) 49.3 1243 99%
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 31.6 796 63%
AMD Radeon HD 6970 24.8 626 50%
AMD Radeon HD 5970 19.9 502 40%
Table 3
Game tests (personnel per second)
Settings Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 AMD Radeon HD 6990 (830/5000 MHz) AMD Radeon HD 6990 (880/5000 MHz) Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 AMD Radeon HD 6970 AMD Radeon HD 5970
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 104.1 103.4 95.1 113.8 114.5 112.7
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 8x 105.3 101.1 91.1 108.1 108.7 106.7
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 102.8 94.8 92.3 108.8 102.1 109.8
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 16X 104 95.2 93.7 106.1 101.3 105.7
Performance ratio 100% 95% 89% 104% 102% 104%
Devil May Cry 4 (SC2, DX10)
Superhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 263.5 288 289.3 242.5 – –
Superhigh, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 262.7 287.1 288.9 222.6 – –
Performance ratio 100% 109% 110% 88% – –
Aliens vs. Predator (Demo, DX11)
Very High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 94.4 106 106.1 62.3 53.9 74.7
Very High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 8x 84.8 95 95.8 34 48.3 61.7
Very High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 81.3 94.3 94.8 55.7 46.9 66.8
Very High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 16X 73 85.2 85.1 47.4 42.1 55.1
Performance ratio 100% 114% 114% 60% 57% 77%
Lost Planet 2 (Demo, Test a, SC.2 dx11)
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 8x 90.4 – – 71.5 41.2 47.5
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 8x 81.7 78.6 76 – – –
High, 1680×1050, AF 16X, AA 16X 89.1 – – 75.5 40.1 49.7
High, 1920×1080, AF 16X, AA 16x 68.1 72.9 75.8 – – –
Performance ratio 100% 101% 101% 82% 45% 54%
Review ratio 100% 94% 94% 50% 38% 69%
Performance ratio 100% 105% 104% 84% 68% 78%