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

[96Firebird]

Are you sure you are posting in the right thread?

It seems to me the majority of people are acknowledging that it is quite a wash.

Perhaps you should re-read the first page of this thread? Most of the posters say AMD is better this, 6990 is better that. Its quite comical really...

And tincart, you can't say the people buying these cards are only running 2560+ resolution, because you don't know that. Nobody does, and that is a piss poor reason to say the 6990 is better...

 

[SlowSpyder]

Perhaps you should re-read the first page of this thread? Most of the posters say AMD is better this, 6990 is better that. Its quite comical really...

And tincart, you can't say the people buying these cards are only running 2560+ resolution, because you don't know that. Nobody does, and that is a piss poor reason to say the 6990 is better...

Regarding the second part of your statement, I think these cards shoudl be judged mainly by their high resolution performance. Sure, someone might buy one of these for 1680x1050 or 1080P. But I would argue that the majority of people who buy a $700 card understand what they are getting and would be using this card in an enthusiast set up. This level card is really meant for 30" monitors and multimonitor setups in my opinion.

 

[Red Storm]

Perhaps you should re-read the first page of this thread? Most of the posters say AMD is better this, 6990 is better that. Its quite comical really...

And tincart, you can't say the people buying these cards are only running 2560+ resolution, because you don't know that. Nobody does, and that is a piss poor reason to say the 6990 is better...

$700 cards are not marketed towards ~$200 displays (unless you're running say, five of them). The minimum resolution for these cards should indeed be 2560x1600, because they are overkill for anything lower. People want to know how they do with 30" LCDs and Eyefinity/Surround setups.

 

[tincart]

And tincart, you can't say the people buying these cards are only running 2560+ resolution, because you don't know that. Nobody does, and that is a piss poor reason to say the 6990 is better...

I can say it. In fact I just did. There may be someone out there looking at this card while running at 1680 x 1050. That person is a moron and I don't feel the need to consider them.

These cards are designed to run high resolution displays and when people judge whether or not to buy one, they will judge based on the performance at those high resolutions.

 

[ZimZum]

Sweclockers overclocked GTX590

2 cards (worth roughly 12000sek or $1714) got fried. One might say they went down in flames xD.

http://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/13...sweclockers-testlabb-drivrutin-boven-i-dramat

Use google translate if you don't speak Swedish =)

Highlight:

Jonas (tester 1): Owww f'ck!
Emil (tester 2): Brinner det, eller? ("is it on fire?")

Tough luck, Nvidia.

edit 3: Review too: http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/13695-nvidia-geforce-gtx-590/1

So far how many cards have blown up on reviewers?

 

[Morg.]

Sure thing is.. 6990 wins hands down, for getting more OC without exploding

 

[yh125d]

Any review site that keeps the 6990's OC results doesn't deserve to be read, IMO. I don't get why people are saying this card is any worse than the 6990... Looking at TPU's review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_590/23.html), it performs better (albeit by only a couple percentage) for all resolutions together. And don't tell me these cards are only for people who have 2560x1600, because you don't know that. I'd say the card is on par with the 6990, runs quieter but uses more power.

Using those numbers, 6990 is only 4% slower across all resolutions, including 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1680x1050! How moronic. While I agree that these cards will not be bought only by those at 2560x1600, testing it at below 1920x1080 is a waste of everyones time. Noone gives a damn how a $700 GPU performs at 1280x1024. Throw out those results and its more like they're dead even at 1200p, and 6990 negligibly faster at 1600. Both cards offer the same performance at the same price from 1680x1050 on up. The deciding factor will be specific games, noise, heat, and features.

 

[Dudler]

Anyone who thinks this card will bring down the price of the 580?

6990 is $700, same as 2x6970.
580 is $500, 590 is much less than double that. Won't 590 sales cannibalize 580 sli sales otherwise?(Unless the make very few 590's that is)

 

[Skurge]

How can anybody call this a wash? The 6990 is faster, uses less power, cheaper, cooler so you cn turn the fan down, doesnt heat up the inside of the case as much and doesnt explode when you overclock it. The 6990 has a pcb that large for a reason, the componants can handle those kinds of demands. It was designed with overclocking in mind. I would not recomend a 590 to anybody.

 

[MrK6]

Any review site that keeps the 6990's OC results doesn't deserve to be read, IMO.

Why? Because the GTX 590 blows up when one tries to do the same?

I don't get why people are saying this card is any worse than the 6990... Looking at TPU's review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_590/23.html), it performs better (albeit by only a couple percentage) for all resolutions together. And don't tell me these cards are only for people who have 2560x1600, because you don't know that. I'd say the card is on par with the 6990, runs quieter but uses more power.

Did you read the individual game reviews? The GTX 580 is only competitive at resolutions that don't matter (1280x1024, really?) and some of the game tests didn't even have CF enabled on the 6990. I'm actually surprised because Wizzard's reviews are generally pretty good, but he dropped the ball on this one.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of quality control in NVIDIA's products. I still mark them down after all the failed 8800 series GPU's I had to fix, and it doesn't seem like NVIDIA is improving in any way. First there were GTX 570's getting toasted with light overclocking, and the GTX 590 doesn't have functioning OCP (which is critical on such a high-power component). I wonder if this is how they cut costs to make up for their lost profits due to GPU size.

 

[GaiaHunter]

How can anybody call this a wash? The 6990 is faster, uses less power, cheaper, cooler so you cn turn the fan down, doesnt heat up the inside of the case as much and doesnt explode when you overclock it. The 6990 has a pcb that large for a reason, the componants can handle those kinds of demands. It was designed with overclocking in mind. I would not recomend a 590 to anybody.

Because it performs great at low resolutions like 1024x768.

Anyone who thinks this card will bring down the price of the 580?

6990 is $700, same as 2x6970.
580 is $500, 590 is much less than double that. Won't 590 sales cannibalize 580 sli sales otherwise?(Unless the make very few 590's that is)

No.

The GTX590 compares to the GTX570 SLI.

 

[MrK6]

Anyone who thinks this card will bring down the price of the 580?

6990 is $700, same as 2x6970.
580 is $500, 590 is much less than double that. Won't 590 sales cannibalize 580 sli sales otherwise?(Unless the make very few 590's that is)

In January 2009, the GTX 285 was released at $400 and the GTX 295 at $500. The GTX 295 destroyed the GTX 285, yet the GTX 285 still sold. Some people will pay a premium for the fastest single GPU card.

 

[Jionix]

AMD might be getting hell for the OC switch and no warranty (and rightfully so), but I have yet to hear of one that has blown-up just by flipping it.

Mock the fan noise of the 6990 all you want, or give all the credit to Nvidia for making a smaller card, but maybe AMD was smart enough to know that you need a more robust PCB design and a faster fan to cope with the heat and power requires of this class of card.

 

[OCGuy]

Pretty much as expected. Bring on Kepler!

 

[n0x1ous]

Agreed. I am glad this is the end of 40nm. Oh wait.....we may get a GF118 yet i supposed but 108 was already fully enabled so probably not.

 

[TerabyteX]

• quieter
• slower
• hotter
• power hungrier
  
• more expensive

BTW do we now have to put up with notty22 posting only selective graphs for the next 20 pages? I wonder what his motivation is.

Yeah, I wish that people would stop doing that. I just don't understand the point. Typical hardware enthusiast will read the whole review and will figure those out, will not simply believe whatever comes from a poster which cherry picks results and conclusions.

I have to admit, I expected a bit worse, at least it is competitive on the performance side and it is quieter. But seems that the GTX 590 is already pushed to the limits in terms of power envelope and circuitry, which means that the HD 6990 still having a bigger margin for overclocking and better performance overall. This is the first time ever that the two GPU vendors are evenly matched with their top dual GPU solutions.

Maybe they should have gone with a bigger PCB afterall, to fit some more power circuitry.

I think that will also increase the costs of the already more expensive to make GTX 590. I think that the GTX 590 is working on its limits just to keep up with a stock HD 6990 which overclocks better, have better power circuitry that doesn't blow up. I think that the 40nm process affected both GPU vendors overall, but thanks to AMD smaller die approach, while it lost its power efficiency, it still was able to fit two GPU's in a reasonable TDP envelope. nVidia did a great job with the GTX 580 TDP compared to the more inmature GTX 480, but 40nm process proved to be too much to ask for the GTX 590. But the GTX 590 will sell well, just don't overclock it, I haven't even overclocked my HD 6970.

 

[SirPauly]

The key, let's see if there are any more episodes with the latest drivers.

 

[TerabyteX]

The key, let's see if there are any more episodes with the latest drivers.

Jum, Half Driver Episode 1 and Episode 2,

 

[SirPauly]

However every now and then something comes across that catches my eye. In this case NVIDIA is also using the GTX 590 to reiterate their support for SuperSample Anti-Aliasing support for DX9, DX10, and DX11. SSAA is easily the best hidden feature of the GTX 400/500 series, and it’s one that doesn’t get much marketing attention from NVIDIA.

Wonderful to see raised because having the ability and for transparency for DirectX 10 and 11 as well is very welcomed and virtually not discussed enough in my eyes.

 

[KingstonU]

If I was going to have to use one of these cards, the 6990 on water would be the way to go.

Exactly what I was thinking. If you are buying into this extreme/$$$ market segment, you might as well dish for the exotic water cooling, which would then put the 6990 on top. Otherwise these cards are kinda moot when comparing to other Xfire / SLI solutions that are faster + cheaper, as many reviews have pointed out.

Besides that you do have to give kudos to NVidia for how short and quiet they did manage to make the reference design.

Now we just need the Xbox 720, PS4 and Wii2 to improve the baseline for games.

 

[MentalIlness]

I cannot seem to recall a time, where Nvidia launched a new GPU, and it wasn't basically faster than ATI/AMD across the board until now.

But with that said. I think they should have used two 560/570 cores instead of 580 cores. Maybe the would have overclocked further, beyond 580 levels and ran a little cooler and used a little less power. It don't matter to me though....I still think it is a damn sexy card.

But honestly, If I had $700+ to blow on a GPU. I believe Id choose the HD6990. But, since new employment may be rearing its head, maybe ill spring for one of each

Seriously though, who really cares who is faster/cooler/quiter/smaller ? Just buy what GPU you want, and be happy with it.

This can go on for months and months about Nvidia/AMD.ATI trolling. What is the point ? Maybe it will push down 580/570 prices somewhat, and in turn push down 6970 prices a little as well.

Not all is lost. It is a nice card. I specifically like the EVGA Classified 590 that Anand showed.

It just seems to be, that AMD/ATI caught Nvidia while their pants were down. I dont know.

Just be glad there is competition.

 

[OCGuy]

You can buy two for $715 each direct from EVGA. Bust out that plastic!

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinf...03G-P3-1598-A2

 

[MentalIlness]

Nah, not right now. If that was directed at me. I can get real close to the performance of a GTX590 with HD6870 Crossfire.

But in a few months, without a doubt, it is a possibility.

Going to build "3" identical rigs. "Hopefully" it doesn't fall through this time.

I do find that EVGA card satisfying for some reason. Can't put my finger on it.

 

[Madcatatlas]

I think it needs to be said again and again. Crossfire scaling really beats SLI scaling IN DA FACE.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Yeah, this hasnt happened since the 7900 back in 2005

Well, I do think the 6990 is too loud, but I wouldnt buy reference designs of any of them, so thats kind of a moot point

What I am not liking this generation is that the performance is all over the place depending on games... Usually the 2 top cards are close in every game with an exception here and there, but here half of the games run better in 590, half run better on 6990... It sucks, youre screwed either way