| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Gemini Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 24 March 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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VGA Testing MethodologyThe Microsoft DirectX-11 graphics API is native to the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System, and will be the primary O/S for our test platform. DX11 is also available as a Microsoft Update for the Windows Vista O/S, so our test results apply to both versions of the Operating System. The majority of benchmark tests used in this article are comparative to DX11 performance, however some high-demand DX10 tests have also been included. According to the Steam Hardware Survey published for the month ending September 2010, the most popular gaming resolution is 1280x1024 (17-19" standard LCD monitors). However, because this 1.31MP resolution is considered 'low' by most standards, our benchmark performance tests concentrate on higher-demand resolutions: 1.76MP 1680x1050 (22-24" widescreen LCD) and 2.30MP 1920x1200 (24-28" widescreen LCD monitors). These resolutions are more likely to be used by high-end graphics solutions, such as those tested in this article. In each benchmark test there is one 'cache run' that is conducted, followed by five recorded test runs. Results are collected at each setting with the highest and lowest results discarded. The remaining three results are averaged, and displayed in the performance charts on the following pages. A combination of synthetic and video game benchmark tests have been used in this article to illustrate relative performance among graphics solutions. Our benchmark frame rate results are not intended to represent real-world graphics performance, as this experience would change based on supporting hardware and the perception of individuals playing the video game. Intel X58-Express Test System
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| Graphics Card | Radeon HD6870 | Radeon HD6970 | GeForce GTX570 | Radeon HD5970 | GeForce GTX580 | GeForce GTX590 | Radeon HD6990 |
| GPU Cores | 1120 | 1536 | 480 | 3200 Total | 512 | 1024 | 3072 Total |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 900 | 880 | 732 | 725 | 772 | 608 | 830/880 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | N/A | N/A | 1464 | N/A | 1544 | 1215 | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 1375 | 950 | 1000 | 1002 | 854 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 1024MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 1280MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 1536MB GDDR5 | 3072 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 320-bit | 512-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit |
- AMD Radeon HD 6870 (900 MHz GPU/1050 MHz 1GB GDDR5 - AMD Catalyst 11.4)
- AMD Radeon HD 6970 (880 MHz GPU/1375 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst 11.4)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (732 MHz GPU/1464 MHz Shader/950 MHz 1280MB GDDR5 - Forceware 267.71)
- AMD Radeon HD 5970 (725 MHz GPU x2/1000MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst 11.4)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (772 MHz GPU/1544 MHz Shader/1002 MHz vRAM - Forceware 267.71)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 (772 MHz GPU/1544 MHz Shader/1002 MHz vRAM - Forceware 267.71)
- AMD Radeon HD 6990 (830/880 MHz GPU/1250 MHz vRAM - AMD Catalyst 11.4)
Comments
but i will wait until aftermarket coolers for 6990 appears
anyway i appreciate great competitions like this one
If the results show low power use in Furmark for the 590, you know the card is activating its limiter, therefor the temp/noise reading are not realistic.
Simply put the power/temp/fan noise should be done on the games as you benched them, its all to easy to program a driver to fool one application to make it look and sound good.
Thanks
Actually, the hardware sits in a big box for retests and other projects. After a year or so, they become gifts or sold for what little they're still worth.
Hey- I never did see any of your work from PAX! Hope it was fun, and worth the visit.
They really need to put some 2g or even 3g of mem on those 580 cards.
I'm pretty sure that's not right.
So what's up next week?
When you look at the things that are not bias towards either product IE Heaven benchmark. Thats where you see the real difference in the cards. All this end talk about features is complete garbage. You can say the same for ATI there card and 3d bluray is far superior then the Nvidia solution. Eyefinity maybe a novel feature but it does work. Something Nvidia has yet to even come close to matching. Heck this is first card with 3 monitors support. Also the displayport is a mute point because ATI is now including a displayport adaptor that illiminates the super high cost of this solution among other reasons could state that this is not a fd it will eventually be the standard. If your going to skew your review because you like nvidia just do it at the begining. Its getting extremely old seeing the bait and switch from both sides.
Some of your remarks are a relief to me, because they show how uninformed you truly are. According to you, features like PhysX, 3D Vision, and CUDA support don't matter. I suggest you start asking around, because like it or not those 'garbage' features help sell these products.
By the way, those 'biased' NVIDIA games that always score the highest... games like BattleForge and Battlefield Bad Company 2... those are AMD co-developed games, not NVIDIA.
Then Toro's jumped on this forum and blogged his ATI Fanboy Mumbo Jumbo. But you know what, that's ok, Handicap need a place to lay their heads at night. If he had read the whole review he would have seen that facts. 1. The 6990 has its pro's and con's. Fact 2, The Nvidia and ATI cards are pretty neck and neck. Fact 3, the 590 won 5, tied 5 and (barley) lost 5. I don't know how anyone could have taken this review as "BIAS" towards Nvidia. I am an Nvidia fan, but I own a 6990 and 2 580 GTX's, they are both powerful................nevermind, I know if Toros is reading this it wont make sense so i will save my time.
Interesting read though. I am anxious to see how the cards compare at their overclocked overvolted limits on reference cooler.
For all I know next year could have big stuff for processors.
The rest of you fanboys should really stop honestly. In the case of the 6990 and 590, what is there really to say one card is superior to the other? I don't find 50w less, 5c degrees less or a card that runs EVER SO quieter to the other good ways of saying my card beats yours. There is no real pure power difference. So I must agree with Colin above and say they are both virtually the same exact cards.
I just have to stick with purchasing Nvidia however for my 3D setup, no biggie.
I was wondering if the 6990 still had the aggressive AF optimizations which results in texture shimmering. I am referring to the AF optimization discovered earlier and brought up in an nViDIA blog.
I really hate texture shimmering, that is a deciding factor for me. If I have to switch setting around in Catalyst in order to get rid of shimmering the benchmark results would not indicate the actual performance I'll get from 6990.
Thanks in advance.
#benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12845&Itemid=47
Usually shimmering (if it's present) can easily be seen in Half-Life 2 in road or railroad parts of the map which extend long into the horizon.
I remember having horrible shimmering in HL2 back when I had 7800GTX.
In the Unigine night scene you mention, can you get rid of shimmering by setting Catalyst AI to high or turning it off altogether?
I suppose in the same Unigine scene , GTX 590 is not showing any shimmering?
Thanks for the reply btw.
##tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/grafikkarten/amd_radeon_hd_6870_h d_6850/s09.php
Can you get rid of shimmering by fiddling with Cat AI ? Does the GTX 590 show the same amount of shimmering as well? In HL2 particularly, since it can easily be detected when moving the camera.
Neither AMD nor NVidia are charities. You want a bleeding edge product, prepare to bleed the cash.
Yes NVIDIA does include HDMI with their cards, I can only assume it is up to AIB partners whether it will be mini-HDMI or a full size port.