Sapphire HD 6990 4GB :: Posted by THRASHER2
AMD has every reason to be happy today - the company launched its Radeon HD 6990 and it earned the title of the worldآ’s fastest card. The card uses two Cayman XT GPUs and will churn out some seriously impressive performance.
Naturally, two chips on one card mean more heat and power as well, but this card is not for the faint of heart to begin with. Sapphire kindly provided us with its HD 6990 and weآ’ll briefly take a look just what the card offers.
UPDATED: Weآ’ve managed to spend some quality time with Sapphire HD 6990 and today weآ’ll show the results. No, not that kind of quality time, thank you very much.
The card was launched at around آ€600 but you can get it today for آ€560 here.
As you already know, Radeon HD 6990 a.k.a. Antilles is currently the fastes graphics card around. However, Nvidia today launches its dual-GPU GTX 590 and itآ’s quite likely that AMD will hand over its crown. However, moving the little switch on HD 6990 results in a boost from 830MHz to 880MHz. Whether this is enough to beat the GTX 590, weآ’ll see soon enough.
The following GPUZ shots show performance difference with regular and OC BIOS:
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Today is Nvidia GTX 590 day :: Posted by THRASHER2
It all comes down to price
The long wait is finally over and Nvidia has finally lifted the NDA veil off its crown jewel, the dual-GPU GTX 590 card. In case you haven't been reading any news post recently, the GTX 590 is Nvidia's dual-GPU card based on two GF110 GPUs placed on a single PCB. The reviews have gone live, benchmarks are posted and we can now relax and take a look on how good, or bad the GTX 590 really is.
As noted, the Nvidia Geforce GTX 590 features two fully enabled GF110 GPUs packed on a single PCB and this sums up to a total of 1024 CUDA cores, or simply 512 per each GPU. The rest of the specs include 2x48 ROPs, 3GB of GDDR5 memory (2x1536MB) paired up with a dual 384-bit memory interface. Due to plain power limitations the card doesn't share the clocks the single GPU GF110 based GTX 580 as it was brought down to 607MHz for the GPU, 1214MHz for shaders and 3420MHz for those 3GB of memory.
The performance of the GTX 590 is pretty much on par with AMD's Radeon HD 6990, which is clearly something that Nvidia can't be proud of, as the Radeon HD 6990 showed up a bit earlier and we might even see a price drop coming from the red camp pretty soon. Of course, you can always say that one is faster than the other, but we are still talking about just a few FPS and those advantages are game dependant, as one wins in some games while other takes the lead in others.
The noise, temperatures and power consumption are just one of the key factors here. We are still talking about enthusiast class products, and most of the customers that usually go for such a card, simply aren't interested in power consumption, noise or even temperatures. Nevertheless, the noise is pretty much the same on both cards. Exception is the "full load/Furmark" where both cards are pushed to its limits and the fan kicks into highest possible gear, and where Nvidia's choice of big fan probably makes a difference.
The temps are pretty much the same as well, and both cards tend to stay below 90C or to be precise somewhere around 45C in idle and around 86C to 90C when pushed under load. Of course, this is very dependable on the test system configuration or simply how well cooled is your case and some other factors as well.
The power consumption issue is a bit complicated as both cards have a way of limiting the maximum power consumption. Nvidia's OCP does a pretty good job at it but AMD's Radeon cards were always better in idle consumption. The story goes its way with these two cards as well, as the GTX 590 uses over 10W more than the HD 6990 in idle and around 10W when you compare them in games. Under full load, Nvidia's card tends to take up to 356W while AMD is keeping its own at around 301W (these are taken from TechPowerup.com review).
So, since the cards are pretty much on par, it all comes down to the price. Despite the fact that some retailers/e-tailers will try to score more money on this card thanks to the hype, the suggested price that came from Nvidia is set at US $699/آ€649. It all makes sense if you take a look at Newegg.com site that sells the HD 6990 for US $709.99 but since the price of it should be US $699 we'll hold our Newegg.com judgment for later. Luckly, TigerDirect.com has both cards and is listing the GTX 590 for US $729.99 while the cheapest HD 6990 is selling for US $709.99.
Europe is a different story as the Radeon HD 6990 can be found for as low as آ€550. Just to be fair, we managed to find both cards at the same retailer/e-tailer shop in Germany, Ditech.de. It currently has three GTX 590 listed and the cheapest one comes from POV with a price tag set at آ€673,34. The same retailer/e-tailer is selling Sapphire's HD 6990 for آ€633,67. The UK is pretty much the same as Scan.co.uk has a couple of GTX 590 but the cheapest one is priced at آ£569.51 while Overclockers.co.uk has one priced at آ£614.99. The cheapest HD 6990 at Scan.co.uk is selling for آ£539.63 while the Overclockers.co.uk has HIS HD 6990 for as low as آ£514.98.
Most reviewers agree on the same thing, and just by looking at these prices in Europe we must say that HD 6990 looks like a better option. We might see more of those price wars pretty soon.
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Asus rolls out its own GTX 590 :: Posted by THRASHER2
First one at Newegg.com for US $699.99
As you probably already know, yesterday was a big day for Nvidia and most, if not all, partners have announced their own GTX 590 cards based mostly on Nvidia's reference design. Although the suggested price tag was set at US $699/آ€649, some retailers/e-tailers are asking for more in order to score some extra cash thanks to the hype. Asus was no exception as it has launched its own card yesterday, but the good news is that this is the first one that is actually listed at Newegg.com with the Nvidia suggested price tag of US $699.99.
As far as the specs go, Asus' card carries a slight factory overclock and while reference cards are mostly clocked at 607/1214/3420 for GPU, shaders and those 3GB of GDDR5 memory, Asus' card works at at 612/1244/3420MHz. In case you somehow manage to miss the GTX 590, we are talking about Nvidia's flagship dual-GPU card that features two fully enabled GF110 GPUs with 2x512 CUDA cores, or simply two GTX 580 GPUs paired up on a single PCB.
Newegg.com was always our reference for US prices and it is no wonder that we see a GTX 590 card priced correctly. Asus is simply the first partner that managed to get one to Newegg.com but we are sure that more will follow pretty soon.
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EVGA rolls out its own GTX 590 cards :: Posted by THRASHER2
Water-cooling ready GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper
EVGA is the first partner that has dared to change the reference cooler on the recently launched Nvidia dual-GPU GTX 590 card. EVGA has announced two models that will feature a factory-overclocked settings, both under its Classified series. The EVGA GTX 590 Classified and the EVGA GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper as EVGA decided to brand it will still use Nvidia's reference PCB and feature a total of 1024 CUDA cores thanks to those two GF110 chips.
Both cards will end up with the same clocks, so you are looking at 630MHz for GPUs, 1260MHz for those 1024 CUDA cores and 3456MHz for 3GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a dual 384-bit memory interface. The EVGA GTX 590 Classified will use Nvidia's reference cooler while the more interesting one, GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper will replace it with a full-cover, single-slot waterblock with chrome plated electrolytic C110 copper base plate, a 0.6mm thin pin matrix and a full cover back plate to keep things well cooled and supported.
Both cards will also be available as an Quad-SLI bundle, which basicaly means that you can buy two of these cards for some insane SLI fun. The single card editions are priced at US $729.99 for the Classified and US $879.99 for the Classified Hydro Copper, while the dual-card bundles are selling at US $1,429.99 and US $1,729.99.
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Homefront sells 1+ million :: Posted by THRASHER2
Has shipped over 2.4 million so far
THQ has confirmed that Homefront has passed the 1+ million sold and they have shipped 2.4 million units to retailers globally. While the reviews were not as good as THQ and developer Kaos studios might have hoped and the launch was a bit rocky with some issues, the title managed to finish as the 6th most played game on Xbox Live last week.
Homefront did well in its European launch with the title climbing its way to the top of the charts in Europe. The game sold a very respectable 375,000 copies on the first day of release in North America and the pre-order to sale conversion rate was very good.
While developer Kaos Studios is planning for a patch to address some additional issues, the first in a steady stream of Downloadable Content is about to be released. The content will appear first on the Xbox 360 platform, followed by the PlayStation 3 and PC at a later date. THQ is pleased with the sales of Homefront and it looks certain that the title will reach its sales goals as predicted by several industry analysts.
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Point of View TGT GTX 590 shipts with 691MHz clock :: Posted by THRASHER2
Water cooled 700MHz+ this week
Many will argue that GTX 590 costs quite a lot and on average you need to pay آ€649 for a vanilla non-overclocked card.
If you want something faster and more exciting such as TGT Point of View GeForce GTX590 Charged clocked at 668MHz and it will cost you آ€650 as long as you live or want to buy it online from Germany. The link is here.
If you want an even faster card, you can buy TGT Point of View GeForce GTX 590 TGT Ultra Charged Edition that will sell for just under آ€700 but works at 691MHz. This card should make some 10 to 15 percent faster score than vanilla card.
Last but certainly not least is the water cooled card TGT Point of View GeForce GTX590 BEAST Watercooled listed for saucy آ€849 but it is certain that the card works over 700MHz with a tendency to go much higher. The final clock is yet to be determined and the card should start shipping later this week.
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Motorola Xoom quad core for back to school :: Posted by THRASHER2
The first Quad tablet
We heard that Tegra 3 aka Kal-El, quad core should start shipping in early Q3 and it looks like Motorola might be the first to ship the product.
Nvidia reportedly said to ship Kel-El in August. Our sources suggest that Motorola plans to ship its new tablet around back to school time, and with this specification, this tablet can make a stand against iPad 2.
You should see a new tablet around September time, sources suggest. Graphics is reported to be much faster on Kal El compared to Tegra 2 and iPad 2 and Nvidia will promote the new chip with gaming in mind. Imagine FSAA 16X in Angry Birds Rio at 60 FPS, all passively cooled.
Until that time you have to settle for Cortex A9 dual cores such as Tegra 2 or similar or go for the iPad 2.
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AMD continues to lead mobile GPU market :: Posted by THRASHER2
Nvidia pins hopes on Sandy Bridge
According to the recent figures churned out by beancounters, AMD is still enjoying a comfortable lead in the mobile discrete GPU market.
AMD currently holds about 60 percent of the market, but analysts are divided on the outlook for next few quarters. While some believe AMDآ’s share will increase by 8 percent, others expect it to decline by 6 percent.
For one thing, it might be a bit too early to estimate the effect of Fusion parts on AMDآ’s low-end discrete graphics sales. Thereآ’s also the competition to think about. Nvidia has rather high hopes for its discrete mobile GPUs, thanks to numerous design wins for Intel Sandy Bridge notebooks, but it is unclear how the Sandby Bridge delay will affect Nvidiaآ’s plans in the first half of the year.
While Nvidia expects to capitalize on Intelآ’s new architecture towards the end of the year, emerging as the market leader, AMD will probably put up quite a fight and at this point itآ’s hard to say who will end up on top.
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