ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3 GB

[W1zzard]

Today NVIDIA releases their new GeForce GTX 590 flagship which is based on two GTX 580 GPUs working on a single card. AMD released their dual-GPU HD 6990 design just two weeks ago, with power and heat being the decisive limit on performance it will be a tough fight between those cards.

Show full review

 

[razaron]

Interesting. I thought that at stock it would be a bit faster than a 6990.

 

[brandonwh64]

over all 4% faster than 6990. Nice

 

[treboRR]

over all 4% faster than 6990. Nice

I hoped alot more. but hey

 

[pr0n Inspector]

over all 4% faster than 6990. Nice

You mean slower.

 

[brandonwh64]

You mean slower.

Look like 4% FASTER than 6990 over all

 

[Spectrum]

holy shit you managed to kill it?
did you try again on the other card to make sure it wasn't a bad card?

 

[pr0n Inspector]

Look like 4% FASTER than 6990 over all

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_590/images/perfrel.gif

Would you buy this and game at anything lower than 1920x1200? The first chart is useless. Only the last two are relevant.

 

[Over_Lord]

word spread that nvidia dropped the card price by 100$. So they are selling two cherry picked underclocked GTX580's for 350$ each(GTX570 price). That makes it dang VFM...(relatively speaking)

I still think 2xHD6950 CFx for 500$ is the best deal you can probably get.

As a result GTX 590 and HD 6990 are roughly the same performance when averaged. In lower resolutions GTX 590 wins, at 1920x1200 both are even, and at 2560x1600 AMD's HD 6990 wins by 3%. Since 2560x1600 is the primary resolution that both of those cards should be used for, my conclusion is that GTX 590 is slower than HD 6990, but not by much. It is still disappointing to see that NVIDIA could not turn their single-GPU winning GF110 into a dual-GPU design win too.

IMO this is the ULTIMATE conclusion must-read of wizz's review..

EDIT:
Last 2 lines clearly show Wizz's disapproval of crysis 2's console port sting and being a dx9 game at launch

 

[mdm-adph]

So, it's about dead equal at the resolutions that matter most to us. Honestly, I'm happy -- now there is no more "fastest card." Everybody can now shut up.

Honestly, though, are they selling the card at a loss? That's a lot of tech they're trying to pack into there, and they can't possibly sell it for more than a HD 6990...

 

[brandonwh64]

Would you buy this and game at anything lower than 1920x1200? The first chart is useless. Only the last two are relevant.

I wouldn't buy it, my 5850 still games quite well so i really dont know who would buy this unless they were a heavy bencher

 

[qubit]

I don't have time to read the review while I'm at work, so just from the conclusion it doesn't look too good, does it? It was only worth a 7 rating, too. Shame.

And oh god, this looks damning:

Card blew up during testing, power limiting system does not work reliably

It looks like the move to 28nm can't come soon enough, can it? Graphics card performance is becoming seriously held back by power issues now.

 

[Kreij]

The fact that the Asus 6990 4GB got a TPU score of 9.1 and this got a 7.0 does not bode well for this card.
I was hoping for a beat down on ATI so the GPU wars would continue. :/

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

No difference with the 6990 @1920x1080? Then why does it cost 50€ more? Even though it does overclock better (when it does not blow up), the 6990 seems like the better card.

 

[Frick]

It's close, and here the prices are identical (except the Gigabyte one with the mouse). And it's only a a few percents difference, so I'd say get whichever one is cheaper. That it blew up during overvolting I don't care about.

 

[theeldest]

Yea!! My prediction was spot on. I predicted that the two cards would be within 5% of each other due to needing to fit within the power envelope.

I'll admit, though, I did *not* predict explosions ...

 

[MoonPig]

Awesome, ATi have kept the performance title.

Unlucky nVidia, once again you've taken longer to release your slower card.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Awesome, ATi have kept the performance title.

Unlucky nVidia, once again you've taken longer to release your slower card.

how do you figure that. the GTX590 overall is 4% faster and with overclocking its even faster. Asus TOP card is clocked at 900mhz. that will smash the 6990. Also drivers come into play here as it did with the 6990 when it released.

The 6990 is also priced at $699

The low factory clocks are what is killing the 590 from winning in every situation. if they clocked it at 725mhz or so it would win.

 

[Tigger]

Personally i would takw W1z's advice and buy a 580 or stick with what i have, these cards are only for rich guys who need bigger epeen.

From W1z's conclusion, i would say Moonpig is correct, The 6990 was better in more tests than the 590 so overall i would say the 6990 is better, and did not blow up

 

[Razi3l]

how do you figure that. the 6990 overall is 4% faster and with overclocking its even faster. Asus TOP card is clocked at 900mhz. that will smash the 6990. Also drivers come into play here as it did with the 6990 when it released.

What do you mean? The 6990 is still on the launch driver as far as I know, so there is nothing "off" about drivers.

I think that this card isn't bad, considering it is close to the 6990 but the (slightly) higher price is something that would put you off, and considering this one blew up, I personally wouldn't buy one. But then again I wouldn't buy any dual-gpu card.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

LOL the card blew up!!
That must have made a certain body part pucker up...

 

[MoonPig]

how do you figure that. the 6990 overall is 4% faster and with overclocking its even faster. Asus TOP card is clocked at 900mhz. that will smash the 6990. Also drivers come into play here as it did with the 6990 when it released.

The 6990 is also priced at $699

The low factory clocks are what is killing the 590 from winning in every situation. if they clocked it at 725mhz or so it would win.

Thats what i said, the 6990 is a better card.

It consumes a fair amount less in games, it doesn't blow up when you try to clock it, it's faster at the resolutions a that are used now (1200p and 1600p).

ATi hasn't released any new drivers (officially) since they released the 6990 (IIRC), so drivers ain't a comparion here.

Be interesting to see the SLi review. Wonder if the 590 will manage more than 20% scalling. Or are we once again limited by the console generation and 1600p being the max resolution in these reviews.

Maybe Wizz should invest in a 1600p tri-monitor setup to see if thats the case. Surely TPU has the power to request such kit.

 

[Mussels]

Card blew up during testing, power limiting system does not work reliably

ahahahahaah!


me and deathmorew are having a good laugh over that in teamspeak right now.

 

[Jack Doph]

Great review, thanks W1zzard
I was hoping the GTX590 would beat the HD6990 (because I'm not camp-faithful - in fact, I dislike both camps equally), but I'll be investing in the Red camp for sure now.
Pity.. I was hoping the Green team had got it right.. Seems they pushed too little too late, for what can only be called a dismal result in the end.

That said.. I'm sure this card would be great for folding

 

[mamisano]

Why oh why do you insist at reviewing at such ridiculously low resolutions for these monsters? These cards are made to drive multiple monitors or the VERY LEAST a single monitor at 1920x1080.

Second, how do you calculate performance per watt when you know that the Nvidia cards use power protection to attain lower power usage than the 6990.

If anyone want's to see a more accurate review, head over to [H]ardocp.