Take a Peek at AMD's Dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990
Take a Peek at AMD's Dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990
Posted 01/26/2011 at 9:49am
| by Paul Lilly
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AMD was forced to relinquish its single-GPU performance crown when Nvidia launched its GeForce GTX 580 videocard, but still retained bragging rights for having the fastest single videocard on the planet, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970. Meet the successor to this popular card, the Radeon HD 6990 (codenamed Antilles).
Matt Skynner, AMD's Corporate VP and General Manager of its GPU division, surprised attendees of the AMD Asia Pacific Fusion Tech Day by whipping out the upcoming card packed with two Cayman GPUs insides, pictures of which quickly flooded the Internet.
AMD didn't get into too many specifics, but you can spy a single DVI output and four mini DisplayPorts. Power is provided by a 6-pin and 8-pin pair of connectors, and according to HardwareZone, the card is "close to the length of a forearm" (holding a piece of paper up to the card, 4Gamer.net estimates the length to be around 300mm, or just shy of 12 inches).
4Gamer says the card should be begin shipping by the end of the first quarter.
Image Credit: hardwarezone.com
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misha573
January 27, 2011 at 10:54am
I'm kinda happy about the bracket layout. All ports on one side with none on the second slot side. This way I can slap on a waterblock (when they become available) and a single slot bracket (or mod the double slot) for watercooled, single-slot goodness ... must get two ... time to upgrade the ageing dual 4870X2s :)
dmanrocks22
January 26, 2011 at 1:02pm
The price/performance of Antilles should smash the 590. Should retail for about $650, whereas the 590 will probably be around 800-900. Plus AMD is typically better about power and heat management, so while this is speculated to use 300-320 watts the 590 should be somewhere in the 400-420 range.
dmanrocks22
January 26, 2011 at 5:09pm
I'm not entirely sure you know what you're talking about, considering AMD HAS been better about heat and energy use for the last generation. They've certainly been better at price/performace ratios. Nvidia's strategy is brute force, AMD's is efficently using what they have, which results in smaller cards and less heat. My 5850 Overclocked to 775 and 1150 has never run above 64* C while gaming on 40% fan, which is almost silent. The die size on the 580 is nearly 130mm2 bigger than the 6970, and heat constraints are going to force it (the 590) to be downclocked more so than the 5970 or (most likely) the 6990, since the 6970 runs a bit cooler.
"It’s been ATI’s strategy over the past few years to produce relatively small, efficient GPUs that are more straightforward to manufacture. This approach leaves the company a little short at the high end of the market, but ATI's plan is to fill this gap by producing dual-GPU cards. It’s therefore not that surprising that ATI is claiming that the HD 6970 2GB’s main competitor is the GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB, not the imperious GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB." - Bit Tech
When it comes down to it, these cards will probably end up within 5% of each other, and when you consider that the 6990 will most likely be smaller and cheaper to produce it will probably end up being the better option of the two. If you look at the going rate for a 6970 vs a 580, ($370 vs 500), it's not a ridiculous assumption to make that the 6990 will be a better price for the performance.
Jean-Luc Pauly
January 30, 2011 at 1:53pm
In my experience over the last several years, what you've said here makes complete sense! Around the time I got my Radeon X800, ATI was showing they had much better power/heat management, and that card is still kicking six years later, whereas my GeForce 6800 by eVGA died in about six months. While it worked, it never maintained high framerates for long either, especially when compared to my ATI Radeon X800. Since then, I've used primarily ATI/AMD cards. I'm putting together a new system right now; I'm looking at two AMD Radeon 6970s in Crossfire. With what we know of the 6990, how do you think it will compare to 1x6970 or 2x6970s, for that matter?
dmanrocks22
February 02, 2011 at 9:01pm
You probably won't be able to squeeze as much OC potential out of it because the 2 cards have to be downclocked to meet power and heat requirements. But you have the possibility of running 4x CFX more comfortably considering you don't have to have an uber-expensive motherboard to support 4 cards, and you also save about $100 the 6990 route over 2 separate cards.
GaryIKILLYOU
January 26, 2011 at 3:39pm
Sounds like you're an opinionated d-bag that has to go against everyone elses opinions with your snide and rude comments, because we all know that you know what you're talking about better automatically compared to anyone else. Personally I think you don't have enough credibility or "experience" to make comments like that.
MaximumMike
January 27, 2011 at 9:17am
Refute the argument or shut up, but don't flame. We're more intelligent than that here.
dmanrocks22
January 27, 2011 at 9:35am
He was actually responding to the guy who told me I didn't know what I was talking about, not me. I posted mine second, however it appeared on top of his response. So opinionated "snide, rude" troll was directed at the guy who commented on me.
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