NVIDIA today introduced the GeForce GTX 590, the fastest dual graphics card available today which also happens to be the world's quietest too. Powered by dual NVIDIA Fermi-class GPUs on a single card, the GTX 590 is designed for über enthusiasts and those looking to build the ultimate PC gaming rig.

With a combined 1024 NVIDIA CUDA architecture cores, 3GB of GDDR5 memory, 6 billion transistors and over 2200 individual components all packed into an 11 inch dual slot card, the GTX 590 delivers a staggering 32 tessellation engines that can power today's cutting edge DX11 games at resolutions of 2560x1600 and higher. With four separate video outputs on each card, consumers can configure their PC with four independent displays, or they can span their gaming across 3 3D displays, at a resolution up to 5760x1080 for an intense, immersive, stereoscopic gaming experience utilizing NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology.

A Chinese source, probably a distributor/retailer, leaked the first pictures of a retail-grade ASUS GeForce GTX 590 graphics accelerator. The pictures reveal a fairly standard packaging by ASUS, which features the same green box with a mythological warrior character used on most recent GeForce graphics cards by the company. Inside, there's a harder black paperboard box, which contains the graphics card and its accessories. ASUS' card bears a reference design. As with many high-end graphics cards released by ASUS in recent times, there are no fancy anime stickers on the card, rather it features the company badge.

The pictures also reveal a little bit about the card. It's a little longer than most NVIDIA GeForce cards released, including the GTX 295. The two GPU systems look well spaced apart from the central fan, which looks to be engineered for higher air-flow. Flipping the card, reveals that NVIDIA did not use a single full-coverage back-plate, rather two smaller ones, that just cover the area behind each GPU, and spread heat from memory chips located at the reverse side of the PCB. Display IO includes three DVI and a mini HDMI. You can use all three DVI connectors at a time, to drive a 3-display NVIDIA 3DVision Surround setup.

Gigabyte want to launch its GeForce GTX 590 in a big way. The company prepared a special, probably limited-edition package, which it refers to as "Exclusive Bundle". Packed in an industrial-looking toolbox, Gigabyte is including its reference-design GeForce GTX 590 3072 MB graphics card, a load of cables and accessories, and a Gigabyte GHOST M8000X gaming mouse, in its complete package (including adjustable weights). Gigabyte's package looks very well made, advertising the products inside well. It kind of makes sense to pack a ultra high-end graphics card with a high-end gaming mouse. With this, Gigabyte is looking to project the GTX 590 as more of a premium gamers' product (than something you buy and put under frozen gases right away).

Gigabyte's press deck also included some benchmark results. Testing is completely internal to the company. Gigabyte is a vendor-neutral graphics card partner (it sells both GeForce and Radeon), so these numbers can be taken at face value. According to Gigabyte, the GTX 590 rocks 3DMark Vantage at low resolutions, but the gap between it and Radeon HD 6990 closes at higher resolutions. It admits that Radeon HD 6990 is a faster graphics card overall for 3DMark 11. In game tests, GTX 590 and HD 6990 trade blows with each leading the other in different game tests. If these figures are to go by, it will be a very close and interesting battle for supremacy between the GTX 590 and HD 6990. Gigabyte's GTX 590 Exclusive Bundle is priced in China at a little under US $1,150.

TechPowerUp today released version 0.5.2 of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information and diagnostic utility that gives you information about the installed graphics hardware in your computer, and lets you monitor various parameters such as clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages, all in real-time. GPU-Z is also backed by our overclock validation system and video card BIOS database. Version 0.5.2 adds support for new GPUs, improved support for known GPUs, and a timely dose of stability improvements.

To begin with, GPU-Z 0.5.2 can now detect AMD Radeon HD 6990, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti; improved support for GTX 570, and Intel "Sandy Bridge" processor-embedded graphics. The CHL8228 VRM controller found on some Radeon HD 6900 series cards is supported. There's improved OpenCL support detection for AMD/ATI GPUs, and improved driver-based monitoring support for AMD/ATI GPUs in general. A number of stability/reliability fixes were introduced.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.2

The changelog for GPU-Z 0.5.2 follows:

Originally slated for March 22, NVIDIA has reportedly delayed the launch of its new high-end GeForce GTX 590 graphics card to March 24, sources told Expreview.com. The reason for this delay is not known, and NVIDIA isn't confirming this delay. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 is a dual-GPU high-end graphics card that uses two GF110 GPUs in an SLI on a stick solution.

An alleged partner presentation slide leaked to the internet reveals quite a bit more about the GeForce GTX 590 than what we already know. To begin with, it lays to rest speculations surrounding the shader configuration, each of the two GF110 GPUs have all 512 CUDA cores enabled. Next, the full width of the memory interface is utilized, giving you 1536 MB per GPU, or 3 GB of total memory on the card.

The rest are fascinating features, such as a removable cooler shroud that lets you clean the card from time to time (you might need to clean it now and then for the best cooling performance), heatsinks that use vapor-chamber technology, getting rid of those pesky heat-pipes, high-grade 12-layer PCB that uses 2 oz copper layers, and a 10-phase VRM (looks like 4+1 phase per GPU). As expected, the final iteration of the card needs to draw power from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors. "Barely Street Legal"? Is it because they'll throw you out of LAN parties for having too much of a performance advantage? Hmmm.

VR-Zone got a hold of the cooler shroud design of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 590 graphics card. The drawing reveals something very similar to that of the GeForce GTX 295 rev. 2 (or single-slot), and tells us a bit about the cooler. The cooler will use a large fan (probably 80 mm in diameter) to blow air on to two heatsinks on its either sides. Channels, and the heatsinks themselves will guide air across both ends of the cooler. Hot air from the first GPU (closest to the display connectors) will exhaust from the rear bracket, while that from the second GPU (farthest from the display connectors), will exhaust into the case. There are spaces on either sides of the fan for partner product artwork. There is more space on top. Next to the cutout for the power connectors, is the GeForce logo. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 590 is a dual-GPU graphics card based on two GF110 cores. It will be released on the 22nd of March.

It looks like EVGA isn't waiting for GeForce GTX 590, and is releasing its own dual-GPU graphics card to challenge Radeon HD 6990. Being released about 12 days ahead of GTX 590, EVGA's new GeForce GTX 460 2WIN could be a tad bit late to the market, considering it was first shown to the world back in January, at this year's CES event. The EVGA GTX 460 2WIN is a dual-GPU graphics card that uses two GeForce GTX 460 GPUs with 1 GB of memory each, for an SLI on a stick solution.

The EVGA GTX 460 2WIN (2WIN sounds like "twin"), uses clock speeds of 700 MHz core, and 900 MHz (3600 MHz GDDR5 effective) memory. Each GF104 chip has 336 CUDA cores enabled, totaling the CUDA core count to 672. The card is cooled by an in-house cooler by EVGA, it uses a large heatsink that is ventilated by three 80 mm fans. Power is drawn from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors. Display outputs include three DVI and one mini-HDMI, you can run a 3-display NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround setup with just one of these cards, without needing a second one.

The dust seems to have settled down, after AMD's launch of the Radeon HD 6990, extending the red-team's performance lead previously held precariously by the Radeon HD 5970, to the GeForce GTX 580. It looks like NVIDIA will challenge the performance leadership with GeForce GTX 590, a dual-GPU graphics card that uses two GF110 GPUs (the ones on GTX 570 and GTX 580), for an SLI-on-a-stick solution. Rumors of NVIDIA working on this card became concrete as early as in November 2010, when NVIDIA's reference board became public for the first time.

Latest reports suggest that NVIDIA has chosen March 22 as the launch day of GeForce GTX 590. Incidentally, that is also the launch date of EA/Crytek's much-hyped, initially DirectX 9 action/shooter game, Crysis 2. GeForce GTX 590 uses two GF110, though the shader configuration and clock speeds are not known. Since NVIDIA is chasing the top-spot, you can expect the most optimal configuration for the GF110s. A total of 3 GB (1536 MB per GPU system) on board, and NVIDIA's workhorse PCI-E bridge, nForce 200 will be the traffic cop and radio station between the two GPUs. The card will be able to do 3DVision Surround (NVIDIA's multi-display single head technology comparable to ATI Eyefinity) on its own, without needing a second card.