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

Features
By Chris Angelini
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

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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
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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