AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise

Features
By
published

Several months late and supposedly only a couple of weeks ahead of Nvidia's own dual-GPU flagship launch, AMD's Radeon HD 6990 has no trouble establishing performance superiority. But does speed at any cost sacrifice too much of the user experience?

Test Setup And Benchmarks

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test Hardware
ProcessorsIntel Core i7-990X (Gulftown) 3.46 GHz at 4.00 GHz (30 * 133 MHz), LGA 1366, 6.4 GT/s QPI, 12 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
MotherboardAsus Rampage III Formula (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10R, BIOS 0505
MemoryCrucial 12 GB (3 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333, MT16JTF51264AZ-1G4D1 @ 9-9-9-24 and 1.65 V
Hard DriveIntel SSDSC2MH250A2 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s
GraphicsAMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB
Row 5 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
Row 6 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB
Row 7 - Cell 0 AMD Radeon HD 5970
Row 8 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 1.25 GB
Row 9 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB
Row 10 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5 GB
Power SupplyCooler Master UCP-1000 W
System Software And Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriverAMD 8.84.3 Beta 2 (For Radeon HD 6990)
Row 16 - Cell 0 AMD Catalyst 11.2
Row 17 - Cell 0 Nvidia GeForce Release 266.58
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Games
Lost Planet 2Highest Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 4x MSAA or 32x CSAA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, DirectX 11, Steam version, Test A
Just Cause 2Highest Quality Settings, No AA / 2x AF, 8x AA / 16x AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Bokeh filter and GPU water disabled (for Nvidia cards), Concrete Jungle Benchmark
Metro 2033High Quality Settings, AAA / 4x AF, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Built-in Benchmark, Steam version
F1 2010Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 8x AA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Steam version, Custom benchmark script, DX11 Rendering
Aliens Vs. Predator BenchmarkHigh Quality Settings, SSAO, No AA / 16xAF, Ultra Quality Settings, 4x MSAA / No AF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600
Battlefield: Bad Company 2Custom (Highest) Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 8x MSAA / 16xAF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, opening cinematic, 145 second sequence, FRAPS
3DMark 11Performance Default
HAWX 2Highest Quality Settings, 8x AA, 1920x1200, Retail Version, Built-in Benchmark, Tessellation on/off
World of Warcraft: CataclysmUltra Quality Settings, No AA / 16x AF, 8x AA / 16x AF, From Crushblow to The Krazzworks, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, FRAPS, DirectX 9 Rendering
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
193 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hayest
    Killer Card!

    Out of spec for default seems kind of weird though.
    Reply
  • CrazeEAdrian
    Great job AMD. You need to expect noise and heat when dealing with a card that beasts out that kind of performance, it's part of the territory.
    Reply
  • jprahman
    This thing is a monster, 375W TDP, 4GB of VRAM! Some people don't even have 4GB of regular RAM in their systems, let alone on their video card.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Did I miss the load power draw? I just noticed the idle and noise ratings. It would be informative to see the power draw of Crossfire 6990s and overclocked i7. I see the graph, but a chart with CPU only and GPU only followed by a combination of both would be nice to see.
    Reply
  • anacandor
    For the people that actually buy this card, i'm sure they'll be able to afford an aftermarket cooler for this thing once they come out...
    Reply
  • wino85
    OMG!!! It's finally here.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    one-shotDid I miss the load power draw? I just noticed the idle and noise ratings. It would be informative to see the power draw of Crossfire 6990s and overclocked i7. I see the graph, but a chart with CPU only and GPU only followed by a combination of both would be nice to see.
    We don't have two cards here to test, unfortunately. The logged load results for a single card are on the same page, though!
    Reply
  • bombat1994
    things we need to see are this thing water cooled.

    and tested at 7680 x 1600

    that will see just how well it does.

    That thing is an absolute monster of a card.

    They really should have made it 32nm. then the power draw would have fallen below 300w and the thing would be cooler.

    STILL NICE WORK AMD
    Reply
  • Bigmac80
    Pretty fast i wonder if this will be cheaper then 2 GTX 570's or 2 6950's?
    But omg this thing is freakin loud. What's the point of having a quite system now with Noctua fans :(
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    Its hot, sucks alot of power, and costs a ton. But i still want one.








    Badly
    Reply