GTX 590 or ATI 6990?

[davexxsmith]

Hello,

I have just built a new PC with a I7 2600k sandy bridge processor, it's currently running with a GTX 460 and I've had a 4870x2 in it as well. I'm now in a position to upgrade the graphics card and do not know which would be best a 590 or a 6990, I've had a look at some reviews and I am struggling to decide. In the future I may want to try the tripple monitor setup and was wondering which would be the best card to buy.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[purple stain]

Both cards are really really close in the benchmarks.Like any other card it really depends on which game you play.

What type of power supply do you have?

GTX590 vs 6990

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/geforce-gtx-590_7.html#sect2

 

[davexxsmith]

I have a XFX Pro 750W power supply. I play games such as Crysis, Witcher, World of warcraft, Mass effect 2, Shogun 2 total war and split second. I like most games and would like to get a card that would support basically any game thats out at the moment.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[bystander]

For less money and less noise, you could go with two 6950 and unlock the shaders to have the same as a 6970. They'd be as fast or faster too.

 

[mlcaouette]

Tigerdirect still has some HD 6950 2Gb reference models available that can be fully unlocked to HD 6970's with a bios flash.

 

[purple stain]

Well in Crysis the 6990 outperfroms the GTX590 by a minimal 5 FPS.Like I said before their performance is so close it really doesn't make choosing either one a better.The maximum gain over the other is 10 FPS which is hardly something to consider.

I guess go with which one is cheaper or that your prefer based on looks or company.

Also yes in some case's a crossfire'd 6970 is slightly better than a 6990 but their is always the hastle of drivers and games that don't support crossfire/sli.Not every game supports crossfire/sli so in some games 1 card will idle and do nothing.I think it's best to go with a more powerful single card and save yourself the trouble of a dual card setup.

 

[davexxsmith]

Thanks for the replies but I'm a tad concerned If i could fit 2x HD 6950's in my case. My case is a http://www.digitgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/antec900.jpg and my motherboard is Asus P8H67-M. Because of the thickness of the card I'm not 100% sure If two would fit in.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[purple stain]

All of the 6990's and GTX590's ae currently out of stock at newegg but the cheapest seems to be the XFX version for $735 and the cheapest GTX590 is $750.At that level $20 isn't really gonna make a difference but I guess it's something to think about.

 

[gametstr]

Thanks for the replies but I'm a tad concerned If i could fit 2x HD 6950's in my case. My case is a http://www.digitgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/antec900.jpg and my motherboard is Asus P8H67-M. Because of the thickness of the card I'm not 100% sure If two would fit in.

Thanks, Dave.

I 'd seriously consider upgrading that mobo for the performance and price points u r looking at.
Get a p67 board and CF 6950s along with a new case should cost u around the same as either one of those cards.

edit : u DONT need a new case. Your case can fit those in without any problem what so ever.

 

[Marnad]

As the others have stated - performance is quite close. If fan noise and heat are a concern, go with the 590.

 

[bystander]

Well in Crysis the 6990 outperfroms the GTX590 by a minimal 5 FPS.Like I said before their performance is so close it really doesn't make choosing either one a better.The maximum gain over the other is 10 FPS which is hardly something to consider.

I guess go with which one is cheaper or that your prefer based on looks or company.

Also yes in some case's a crossfire'd 6970 is slightly better than a 6990 but their is always the hastle of drivers and games that don't support crossfire/sli.Not every game supports crossfire/sli so in some games 1 card will idle and do nothing.I think it's best to go with a more powerful single card and save yourself the trouble of a dual card setup.

All games that support crossfire or SLI will only use one of the gpu's on the 6990's and 590's. The 6990 is a crossfire card and the 590 is an SLI card. The only difference is they fit two GPU's on a single card.

 

[bystander]

As the others have stated - performance is quite close. If fan noise and heat are a concern, go with the 590.

While it's very true that the 6990 is loud, the 590 is just as hot, if not more so. When people try to OC the 590's, due to their less effective cooling in terms of heat dissipation, they have been failing.

 

[purple stain]

I didn't know they were already in a SLI/Crossfire setup as a single card.Thought they were tied into each other like a dual core.

That being the case I think it is best then to crossfire 6950's since the Crossfire/SLI situation will be the same either way.

 

[davexxsmith]

I 'd seriously consider upgrading that mobo for the performance and price points u r looking at.
Get a p67 board and CF 6950s along with a new case should cost u around the same as either one of those cards.

edit : u DONT need a new case. Your case can fit those in without any problem what so ever.

Looking at a P67 Sabertooth mobo and the distance between the PCI-E connectors looks the same as my mobo so still not sure if 2 6950's would fit together.

If i did get 2 6950's would a 750w power supply handle them? or would I need to upgrade that also. Also If i was to change my motherboard to a P67 mobo, could you please recommend one as I'm still worried about fitting 2 cards on one mobo, as I'm not sure if they will physically fit. For example the XFX 6950 looks thinner than the Asus 6950.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[bystander]

I didn't know they were already in a SLI/Crossfire setup as a single card.Thought they were tied into each other like a dual core.

That being the case I think it is best then to crossfire 6950's since the Crossfire/SLI situation will be the same either way.

It still is a lot like a dual core. Even with these dual cores, the application has to be written to use both cores, which is the difficulty with crossfire/SLI.

 

[shrkbay]

6990 is a bit faster than 590, which has bad reviews cause of only 1.5GB per GPU. While 590 is getting hot... really hot, 6990 is loud... very load. Both are SLi/CF setups, but overkill compared to cheaper SLi/CF setups. You can look at 6950s, they beat 590 and 6990, while being a lot cheaper, quieter, cooler and i think they might use less power. OP, you have 2 slots between PCIe connectors so you will be fine as most of cards are 2-slot. Btw, i can't remember if it was upper card that required more cooling or the card that's below?

 

[swifty_morgan]

you running 37 monitors or just one, and what is it and what resolution ? you might be looking at over kill.

 

[Derbixrace]

i'd get the 6990 because of more VRAM, its a tiny bit faster overall and its a tiny bit cheaper.

also the GTX 590 has weak VRM's or too few of them. so if you want to OC dont then dont get the GTX 590.

 

[davexxsmith]

I would think it's the top card as the heat from the bottom card and then the gap between the two means the upper cards fan is only pulling hot air from the lower card. I am running only 1 monitor but I'm also thinking about upgrading to a triple setup. I am looking at such high cards because I will not be able to upgrade the graphics after this for a long time, so i'm looking for something that will last for a good while.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[swifty_morgan]

go with the 6990. it's proven itself time and time again at high res triple monitor set ups. the 590 is horse manure in comparison. go to hard ocp.... google it. you can look through the site and see several multi monitor set ups at different resolutions using one card ( 6990 vs 590 )........ and using the cards in a quad set up recently. no contest.

 

[davexxsmith]

Ok, I've ruled out the GTX 590. But I'm still unsure between the 6990 or 2 6950's. Any further comments appreciated.

 

[Derbixrace]

you can rule out any dual graphic card solutions because your second PCI-E slot runs at x4.

6990 is the way to go for you.

 

[davexxsmith]

Thank you so much, a 6990 is it then.

Is that just because of my mobo I have? If i changed it could I run to 6950 cards and crossfire okay, and If so what mobo would I need?

 

[Embra]

What resolution are you playing at??

 

[davexxsmith]

1920x1200