Hardware Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3GB Review

Absolutely and dual GPU setups have historically been held back more by CPU limitations than single cards so testing with a 3.2GHz 965 isn't going to show these card in as good a light as possible. Guru3D's SLi GTX590 review shows a better approach to testing monster cards like these.

 

Got 2x 590's delivered on the 25th and one of the GPU's just died, attempting to RMA them both at the mo.

Not a big flash bang or loads of smoke, just a fan whirr and then booted into windows. Noticed the frame rate was low and then saw I only had 3 gpu's working, major bummer. Gotta say though, they were awesome while they worked.

Funnily enough it's the same Zotac brand that I saw someone else had a problem with on overclockers forum and they bought from Ebuyer at the same time as me so there might be a problem with the batch or something (just my opinion mind).

Guess that's what you get for being greedy.

 

Has anyone been able to get FurMark working with 2 Nvidia's cards in SLi? I can only get 1 of mine working for some reason. I can get 2 working in the Uingine Heaven benchmark.

 

Just changed my order from a 590 to a 6990. After a week of being messed about by suppliers with not so much as a theoretical date for new uk shipments and apparent ongoing thermal issues on the stock cooler i think it's the right choice.. Shame because i was genuinely looking forward to supporting the Nvidia camp (in a completely non-fanboi capacity).

 

good call m8!
however, why didn't you ever opt for a single 6970 instead? not only do they outperform a 6990, but they are basically the same price, if not cheaper.
Both of those are not worth it, however, the 6990 at least works, unlike the 590, so in that sense, good call. Besides, I really hope you are running eyefinity

 

Jesus Christ. I remember buying my old 4870X2 for £330 when it was far from old (came out mid-August IIRC, and I bought it mid-September before Uni). Why the hell are they so frickin' expensive now? It's madness.

 

I don't understand this...

The 6970 outperforming a 6990? The 6990 "basically" the same price as the 6970? On what planet?

Is this a typo?

 

Sigh, I shouldn't post while hammered.
What i meant of course was for dual 6970-s

 

Had to sell my old rigg at the time in it's entirety (with nothing but a laptop to get me by) just under 3 years ago resulting in my now having to re-purchase literally EVERYTHING again, although another couple of monitors are on the agenda i need a month to catch my breath financially

Probably won't be getting another couple of 24's thou, maybe 2 19's in 4:3..

 

And now it can't be overvolted at all!
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20711

No OC'ing for the Bit-tech 590 then?

And does this not mean the review should be revisited(it still has the inaccurate asides regarding 6990 warranty voiding)???

 

idd, warranty-voiding overclock on 6990, or a card-killing overclock on a 590? tough choice indeed
and, since you can't to one of those anymore, guess which is the better monster card?

 

So Nvidia cards support triple monitors? I thought Eyefinity only supported that.

 

It seems that these two duel cards are just a little too powerful/power-hungry for the hardware they're attached to. I absolutley would not consider buying one when they are seemingly so easy to break.
Perhaps they would have been more suited to PCI-e 3?

 

I'm not sure PCIe 3 is going to up the power limit.

And with smaller, LESS power hungry chips on the way -28nm- why would the powers that be want to?

 

then again, they've already played with the 300W+ cards... why not go over that limit again at 28nm and enjoy even MORE performance? how else are they going to get teh performance increases? If, for example, the new Radeon dual chip card consumes 300W at 28nm, it could be just about the same speed as the 6990, making the card kinda pointless. granted, it would have stellar power efficiency, but with similar performance, how many would care?

 

The point is, I think, that AMD/nVidia have to make sure all the other components on the pcb are of a quality that can handle the juice. Part of he issue with the early 590's releasing their "magic blue smoke" was that certain components were ...of insufficient quality and hence they went BANG! nVidia have capped the voltage in their BIOS and so capped the OC potential of this 'monster class leading card'!

 

...while amd has managed to release 2 dual chip cards that can have max power use of over 350W (5970 at 5870 clocks was 375W or so i think?).

 

5970 was 340w at load or 462w for the'insanely thirsty' Toxic version.

Just because you could doesn't mean you should!