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AMD HD 6990 Preview March 07, 2011 |
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Summary: Equipped with two Cayman architecture processors, AMD has taken the single card performance crown again. And with a BIOS setting pushing the envelope to consume 450 watts, it is a monster! Check out the preview and we will be back with more information compiled with your suggestions of things to test.
 AMD’s HD 6990 is here | Page:: ( 1 / 1 ) |
AMD is releasing its most powerful graphics card today, Radeon HD 6990. While it is reminiscent of the original multi-GPU cards of yesteryear, it is the fastest single graphics card on the planet. CrossFire-on-a-Stick and the counterpart card from the other company are interesting phenomena. They boast of the fastest single performance figures and in multi-card arrangements can garner serious performance figures, yet at what price? In the case of HD 6990 it is $700 a card. You seriously need to be hungry for high resolution multi-monitor performance to require this kind of firepower. However, Bugatti Veyron or Lamborghini Reventon isn’t affordable either to the general public and neither are graphics cards like this. Budget performance gamers may not be able to have the toys but we can still admire someone else’s.
Equipped with two Cayman based graphics processors, Antilles weighs in with over 5 GigaFLOPS of raw compute power. It is scary to think about that kind of compute power from a single device. In fact, if we hooked up 20 of these boards together, we would have beat out many of the top 500 supercomputers built just a few years ago. Now, when it comes to gaming performance, it is the fastest single card in existence. That is of course until the next super-card comes along.
This is the grand-daddy of all multi-GPU card setups, Quantum3D Mercury
Looking at the card there is something very obvious that we can assume; it is going to consume a LOT of power. It comes with two 8-pin power connections which gives the board a natural ceiling of 375 watts. However, AMD launched its PowerTune technology back with Cayman. Just to refresh your memory, PowerTune is a technology system which monitors and regulates power draw across all parts of the processor and components. This enables the card to determine the fastest clock frequencies while maintaining a specific thermal design. Additionally, like the 6970 and 6950 boards, the 6990 has dual BIOS. The awesome part of this launch is the fact that AMD provided one specifically modified to draw up to 450 watts!
Unfortunately I have to end this teaser here. While I would love to have the performance numbers available to you, however, I just got the card and the driver in hand. I promise to have them up shortly. If you have any specific questions or requests in the benchmarking setup to please send me a message or contact one of the generals in the forums. If your suggestion is within reason and I can fit it into the test schedule, I will do it.
