Official GTX 590 Review Thread (23 reviews at this time)

[Outrage]

You misread my post. I said modded bios, and a modded bios would allow for 1.2volts.

But, you are getting away from the real question. If you are a knowledgable reviewer, why would you even try to use more the the allowed voltage of a gtx580 in a gtx590.

Cause the 590 is an amazing piece of marvelous enginering according to some? just take a look at the schematics of the 590 with all the highlights.

You can come up with 3 answers
1. irresponsible
2. lack of knowledge
3. on purpose

You pick one.

Would you pump 1.6volts into your brand new 2600k cpu because you could?

I dont know how you do when you overclock, you usualy keep on going until you see the signs that you have passed the limit of what the hardware can take and then back of a little, it's not normal that the hardware explodes when you approach that limit.

If i was among the first to have a 2600k in my hands and it was responding well when i overvolted it, sure i would.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Would you pump 1.6volts into your brand new 2600k cpu because you could?

That would be extremely unreasonable. Nvidia is saying to not increase the voltage at all unless you are water cooling. And even then, they are recommending 12.5-25mV, and still tell you that you might blow up the card. You think that's a good result and good hardware design?

 

[TerabyteX]

Would you pump 1.6volts into your brand new 2600k cpu because you could?

It is just as bad as using car analogies. Will you pump your brand new Corvette over 10000RPM for extended periods of time? It wouldn't explode, but CPU's are totally different. Are less complex and less dense at the transistor level, it can't be compared directly to a GPU which is far more complicated.

I might have puny 45 posts but I haven't been in the computer industry while you were on diapers and at least most of them are more useful than your 3000+ blindful pro nVidia posts. Care to explain why you can overclock the HD 6990 and doesn't explode? It is a GPU, running at even higher clocks at the same 40nm process.


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[AtenRa]

It is just as bad as using car analogies. Will you pump your brand new Corvette over 10000RPM for extended periods of time? It wouldn't explode, but CPU's are totally different. Are less complex and less dense at the transistor level, it can't be compared directly to a GPU which is far more complicated.

I might have puny 45 posts but I haven't been in the computer industry while you were on diapers and at least most of them are more useful than your 3000+ blindful pro nVidia posts. Care to explain why you can overclock the HD 6990 and doesn't explode? It is a GPU, running at even higher clocks at the same 40nm process.

I dont think Corvette will be able to rev at 10K rpms, most of the consumer US engines dont rev at high rpms.

 

[ZimZum]

Dum, stupid, irresponsible, mabe retard is the wrong word, but I think you get my point.

Do you have any names to label the people whos 590's have exploded using stock voltages and stock clocks?

 

[TerabyteX]

I dont think Corvette will be able to rev at 10K rpms, most of the consumer US engines dont rev at high rpms.

I know Japanese cars FTW!

 

[bryanW1995]

Do you have any names to label the people whos 590's have exploded using stock voltages and stock clocks?

Haters

 

[SlowSpyder]

Some of you guys seem to be missing the fact that even if you ignore the 1.2 volt card, others appear to be failing with far less abuse.

This doesn't appear to be a 1 our of 1000 over the coarse of a year. This is multiple failures during the first week of reviews.

If I was sold on one of these for some reason, I would be sure to get an Evga for the warranty.

 

[Elfear]

No you missed my point totally.
Have you EVER seen a 1.2v air overclock with a gtx580 without a modded bios and hopefully on water? I hope not, or someone has a extra special chip or a fried card. So why on earth would you try it with a dual gtx580 card?

Have you ever seen a 6970 at 1.55 volts, I hope not, because they also have a fried card or a card that I would never buy used off them.

It's not about the % of the increase, its why if a gtx580 can't do it how would you expect a dual gtx580 to do it?
Same goes for the 6990.

See what I'm getting at?

Happy, I think you are entirely missing my point. Percentage increase is very important when talking about overvolting. If the 6990 can take a 25% in voltage why does the 590 blow up with the same applied?

At stock, a GTX 580 has core voltage at 1.05V. So 1.2V would only be a 14.3% increase. Seems like a reasonable range to assume the GTX 590 could handle. A 6970@1.55V would be a 31.9% increase (speaking of insane voltage, how about at 6970@1.73V).

 

[pcm81]

Happy, I think you are entirely missing my point. Percentage increase is very important when talking about overvolting. If the 6990 can take a 25% in voltage why does the 590 blow up with the same applied?

At stock, a GTX 580 has core voltage at 1.05V. So 1.2V would only be a 14.3% increase. Seems like a reasonable range to assume the GTX 590 could handle. A 6970@1.55V would be a 31.9% increase (speaking of insane voltage, how about at 6970@1.73V).

6990 can do 25% because it was designed to run at the stock voltages. I bet 590 was designed to run at lower voltages than stock, but then green team had to factory overclock it to be competitive with 6990, leaving smaller margin for additional overclocking...

 

[Keysplayr]

Some of you guys seem to be missing the fact that even if you ignore the 1.2 volt card, others appear to be failing with far less abuse.

This doesn't appear to be a 1 our of 1000 over the coarse of a year. This is multiple failures during the first week of reviews.

If I was sold on one of these for some reason, I would be sure to get an Evga for the warranty.

And you seem to be missing the biggest fact yet. Those were early premature drivers that should not have been used. Who knows what testing Furmark, a program that forces a greater power draw than normal on a card the old driver at 1.025 volts. The card might draw what it needs without proper protection.
Just focus on the now. Now being that there are proper drivers with proper protection for all to have.
Enjoy.

 

[Outrage]

it was not furmark, it was during a run of 3dmark 11

 

[AnandThenMan]

And you seem to be missing the biggest fact yet. Those were early premature drivers that should not have been used. Who knows what testing Furmark, a program that forces a greater power draw than normal on a card the old driver at 1.025 volts. The card might draw what it needs without proper protection.
Just focus on the now. Now being that there are proper drivers with proper protection for all to have.
Enjoy.

As pointed out, it was not Furmark.

Now can you clarify a few things? Were the wrong drivers included with some of the 590's? Is it true that people should not increase voltage at all unless they are going to go with water cooling? Also, is it possible that a driver glitch or crash could kill the card, or is there dedicated hardware protection to prevent over current and thermal failure?

 

[pcm81]

To test real power draw use BOINC client with Milkyway@Home or Collatz@Home projects. 3dMark11 on my 2 6990s peaks at 100C while the BOINC client heats up the cards to 109C. This is all at 830Hz but very warm ambient temp. 3dMark does not load the card to its full load, usually 2nd-4th GPUs are stillint at 250MHz clocks on 3DM tests but at 830MHz in BOINC.

 

[MentalIlness]

As pointed out, it was not Furmark.

Now can you clarify a few things? Were the wrong drivers included with some of the 590's? Is it true that people should not increase voltage at all unless they are going to go with water cooling? Also, is it possible that a driver glitch or crash could kill the card, or is there dedicated hardware protection to prevent over current and thermal failure?

Very good questions, Id kind of like to know myself honestly.

And why are these cards still not showing up on Newegg ? I searched manually/auto. If I type in GTX 590...I get a EVGA GTX 580

 

[96Firebird]

pcm81, is there an option for enabling multi-GPU cards in 3dMark11? I don't have the program, nor a multi-GPU card. It seems as though 3dMark11 needs to be updated for these cards?

 

[Elfear]

6990 can do 25% because it was designed to run at the stock voltages. I bet 590 was designed to run at lower voltages than stock, but then green team had to factory overclock it to be competitive with 6990, leaving smaller margin for additional overclocking...

I could see that. IMO the failures on the 590 are a result of inadequate power circuitry design and the wrong drivers. Hopefully the newer drivers will prevent any further explosions but the weak circuitry makes the 590 a poor choice for enthusiasts who like to overclock.

Still, I wish AMD could steal some of the Nvidia engineers who work on the cooling solutions for their cards. Nvidia does a great job in that department and as I get older I appreciate the lower db more and more.

 

[96Firebird]

Still, I wish AMD could steal some of the Nvidia engineers who work on the cooling solutions for their cards. Nvidia does a great job in that department and as I get older I appreciate the lower db more and more.

AMD hasn't had to deal with extremely hot GPUs like Nvidia has, maybe thats why Nvidia puts more into the cooling solution than AMD. Before the HD69xx series, their cards have always run pretty cool, even with basic reference cooling.

 

[AnandThenMan]

And why are these cards still not showing up on Newegg ? I searched manually/auto. If I type in GTX 590...I get a EVGA GTX 580

I see them, two results come up. Both out of stock however.

edit - I noticed that on the box is the familiar "Asus Voltage Tweak" tagline. But Nvidia is saying don't touch the voltages on stock cooling. What gives?

 

[pcm81]

pcm81, is there an option for enabling multi-GPU cards in 3dMark11? I don't have the program, nor a multi-GPU card. It seems as though 3dMark11 needs to be updated for these cards?

No. Crossfire/SLI are enabled/disabled in drivers.

The reason whu 3dM11 does not push cards as hot as BOINC client does is because in BIONC each GPU does his own task, trully in parrallel to other GPUs. In 3DM the 4 GPUs have to share the same task (rendering your screen), so there is more down time and so lower temps...

 

[AtenRa]

I see them, two results come up. Both out of stock however.

edit - I noticed that on the box is the familiar "Asus Voltage Tweak" tagline. But Nvidia is saying don't touch the voltages on stock cooling. What gives?

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1576/16/

You can see what ASUS had to say about overclocking below.

* By default without voltage adjustment or fan adjustment you should generally be in the range for 660 to 670 for the GPU. Anything more than this while potentially stable under stress testing / benchmarking should have a manually set fan profile exceeding 60% to ensure sufficient cooling.
* Utilizing Voltage Tweak internally we have seen clock speeds in the range of 740 to 780 (this is using a vcore setting of 1.035 to 1.065) varying on the GPU. IT IS IMPORANT TO NOTE any overclocking with voltage exceeding 1.000 is strongly advised that the fan be manually set to ensure sufficient cooling performance.
* It is not advised to generally exceed the 1.050 to 1.065 vcore range as this begins to meet the limits for the OCP/OVP mechanism on the card. Exceeding these values without disabling OCP/OVP or having superior cooling could affect the lifespan and functionality of the card/gpu.

Some people raised to 1.2V with default cooling

 

[SlowSpyder]

AnandtheMan, your link takes me to a GTX580. I can find no trace of the GTX590 on Newegg... seems like there might be a problem to me.

 

[notty22]

Very good questions, Id kind of like to know myself honestly.

And why are these cards still not showing up on Newegg ? I searched manually/auto. If I type in GTX 590...I get a EVGA GTX 580

They have been showing up and selling out FAST. Evga official twitted the 590 limited was available last night , I went and checked it out, sold out in a half a hour.
http://twitter.com/EVGA_JacobF

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0630&cm_re=gtx_590-_-14-130-630-_-Product

 

[96Firebird]

AnandtheMan, your link takes me to a GTX580. I can find no trace of the GTX590 on Newegg... seems like there might be a problem to me.

Try logging in... For some reason, I wasn't logged in and tried to search for GTX 590 and the GTX 580 SC came up. Then, after I logged in, the two OOS GTX 590s showed up. Dunno why Newegg would care if you are logged in or not though...

 

[WelshBloke]

I could see that. IMO the failures on the 590 are a result of inadequate power circuitry design and the wrong drivers. Hopefully the newer drivers will prevent any further explosions but the weak circuitry makes the 590 a poor choice for enthusiasts who like to overclock.

Still, I wish AMD could steal some of the Nvidia engineers who work on the cooling solutions for their cards. Nvidia does a great job in that department and as I get older I appreciate the lower db more and more.

Doesn't the 6990 run a bit cooler than the 590? Sounds like AMD just went with a more aggressive fan profile.