AMD launches dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 graphics card

AMD has finally launched the long-awaited successor to its dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 and new flagship product topping its 6900 range. The Radeon HD 6990, otherwise known as Antilles, is made up of two tweaked versions of the HD 6970's Cayman XT core running at 830MHz, 3072 stream processors, 192 texture units, two 256-bit memory channels, 4GB of GDDR5 running at 5000MHz, and it consumes a maximum of 375W (37W during idle).

Read the whole story

Lord almighty!

What the helll.. why are my pants so wet all of a sudden.

Overpriced engineering marvel.
$699 for slightly less performance than two 6970's at $640...of course you could spend an extra $50 and buy three 6950's, unlock them and put the issue beyond doubt.

For a graphics card launch I would have expected more than zero listed at Newegg.

Reviews also at:
HardOCP
Tom's Hardware
Bit-tech
Tech Power Up
Guru3D
Hardware Canucks
HT4U (use your preferred translator)
Hardware.france (ditto)
OC3D (and Crossfire)
Hexus
Neoseeker
Hot Hardware
Legit Reviews
Tech Radar
Hardware Heaven
Benchmark Reviews
Kitguru

(Face of oh like the little green aliens from Toy Story 1 when they see the crane)

I think that sums it all up...

Impressive hardware as it should be considering the considerable dent it is going to make on gamers' wallets. I still think AMD should have gone with a custom third-party cooler on a triple-slot design. For most gamers using a single or dual monitor setup, a pair of 6970s or even 6950s should provide more than enough horsepower to run current games at their highest settings and these cards would be easier to find at online retailers than their big brother, the HD 6990.

You pay the extra $60 to have it in a single card setup and for people who only have one PCI slot, this is for them.

You also factor in a GTX580 is $499, only $200 you get almost double the performance in some cases.

Overpriced is not something I would call it.

Anyone who has a mobo with only 1 PCIE slot will probably have an older CPU that will bottleneck the 6990 in the first place. Almost all lga 1155 and 1366 boards have over 1 PCIE slot.

its good for me since i have only one pci x16 slot but i think that for my 1920x1080 its totally a overkill since at this resolution my hd 5870 is able to run any game at their max settings and also this will cost me more than 850 dollars because for running this i will need to upgrde my 460 watt to a 700 plus power supply.
I will wait for 28 nm hd 7000 series for a graphic card which will perform better for less power and temp and it will be out in about mid 2012 or before.

It's hard to imagine someone able to spend $700 on a single graphics card can't afford a mobo with more than a single PCIE slot.....

For all the one PCIe-x16 haters: mini-ITX boards. They have only ONE slot period, and as of late it's been a PCIe-x16 slot. Older or lower power boards are often electically only four lanes, but other boards are full laned slots. Paired with a Sandybridge or a newer AM3 board and a monster ITX case like the ones Lian Li have been making, you have one serious and compact gaming system.

Incidentally, say you have two PCIe-x16 slots as many mATX motherboards do, but you have a PCIe card you need to use (sound, network, wireless, USB/SATA, RAID, what have you), and none of the smaller connectors (x4 or x1) are available/covered? Then you are limited to one video card.

I won't argue that most people who would buy a 6990 or a GTX 590 are probably using ATX motherboards or larger, but the fact of the matter is there are other who are building in a smaller form factor or have other specific hardware needs in addition to a cutting edge video card.

If you look at reviews of any dual GPU card on newegg you will notice that most people buy 2 of them to run quadfire. They aren't for people who want crossfire but only have one slot, it's for people who want quadfire but only have 2.

I also think that someone who can spend $700 on a videocard can afford a motherboard with 2 PCI-e slots....

@madboyv1
I don't think this card is meant for a small form factor. I couldn't fit that in my antec 900 none-the-less an mATX setup.

they could have sent techspot a sample more earlier. Don't worry techspot, nvidia surely will have a sample for you.

yea, putting a 12" card into a SFF/mATX setup is kinda stupid. no offense.

...and hot one at that.

@yRaz, my PC-Q08 with a little bit of fanagling can fit a 12" card, which that card seems to measure at. "Not meant for", you're probably right at least at the mini-itx form factor. But VERY possible nevertheless. It's a matter of making sure you get a case that'll accept one, or break out the dremel and MAKE IT FIT. =)

As for the newegg remark, not everyone buys from newegg, nor do people leave reviews for every product they own. I personally know a half dozen people who have one 5970, two bought from newegg and left feedback, the others were other online or brick and mortar stores. I only know one person who has two, and he did get them at newegg. =o

Once you know you newegg.

Surely the newegg reviews have to be relative of some sample size. Although, it is the enthusiast website for computer parts...idk, you have a good point. I'm just looking at the information I'm presented with.

Shouldn't we already say "4GB of GDDR5 running at 5GHz?, it sounds more sexy

+1. The ones I mentioned that didn't get newegg, paid more because of it (except one @ brick and mortar, he got a sizable discount because he knew someone who worked there).

No, because we all like bigger numbers. If we start using higher denominations it is because we're getting lazy/tired of saying/typing the other in conversation, not because it's "sexy." =p

For someone who's alias is madboy you make more sense than anybody else here. Don't bother trying to inject a "different perspective" to these folks who only see things through their own setups. If they have it set up THEIR way, that must mean EVERYBODY ELSE MUST HAVE THE SAME SETUP.

And if a majority of people could just Xfire of SLI two cards, then why do these manufacturer's bother making Dual GPU cards???

There is no Logic to some of the way people think here I won't name any specifics.