Looks like both teams in a way can say they are winners this time around. Unless of course you're the one that sets the new dual-gpu on fire [Link].

That's a bit surprising and something I did not expect.

I would say the real winner here is us, most of the time at least if companies aren't partaking in shenanigans . It's nice to have plenty of options, definitely better then being shoehorned one way or the other.

Not exactly. If you'll think back to the birth of the 295, which the 590 is basically just the next gen of, it had a few initial teething problems. Not only did it need a driver or two to help iron out performance, it also had the obligatory SLI hiccups that needed stamping down so you could actually use it.

And while we're on the subject of the GTX 295, does anyone think Asus will be looking at the 590 as a candidate for the Mars III?

The problem with that is simply that every driver release then potentially becomes a full review candidate, since release games will also suffer if either AMD of Nvidia release it under their gaming banner. I'm sure AMD will push for reviews (either directly or through forum fanboys) when/if they get Civ 5 performance up to scratch. Likewise DAO and Shogun 2 would come in for the same attention from the green camp

Doubtful IMO. Asus got burned on the Mars (too late into the market) and Ares wasn't (and isn't) a big seller regardless of the fact that only 1000 went to market...and who is going to plunk down $1k on 5870 Crossfire ? -and that's without considering that the same amount of cash (or less) buys GTX580SLI or the three-way crossfireX 6000 series of choice.
Having said that I think the biggest obstacle to the full 580SLI Mars if Asus itself. A DirectCopperII version of the GTX590 would be, for all intents and purposes, the exact same card - especially if they add a third PCIe connector... Personally I'd wait it out for either a GTX580 w/ 3Gb ( if I were desperate for a card...an nvidia card) or keep the folding in my wallet and hope TSMC's 28nm process is on (or close to) time.

I normally agree with this statement in from a sheer performance standpoint. However, with the obvious framerate pointing where people are commenting/jeering about differences of 5 fps between cards or average/max (not just this site, others included), especially in the low 30s and low 40s where it counts the most, it's obvious that from a practical performance standpoint your resolution probably should not be that high for that game, especially for the ones who live by "60fps min or the highway." So whether you discount a resolution really depends on how you're looking at it.

Regardless of the resolution however, these dual GPU solutions are crazy powerful, and to think only 5 years ago we had the 8800 series and the HD2900, the beginning of Unified Shaders. =o

@dividebyzero - I'm also looking forward to a custom GTX 580 with 3 GB DDR5 similar to the 2GB GTX 285 cards which appeared late in that product's life cycle. I personally think the 590's 1.5 GB memory buffer does get exhausted at very high resolutions and image settings resulting in performance drop-offs in the benchmarks. The 6990's 2 GB buffer should give it an advantage in this situation. Maybe it's just me but I don't care much for Nvidia's oddball memory configurations. 3 GB sounds better to me than 1,536 MB.

@Lurker
Toms recently did a review about performance improvements with each new release of graphic drivers (using HD 5870), however, the review is about ATI Catalyst drivers; but I think it is a good idea anyway which probably can give you a reasonable guestimate about what to expect from nVidia as well.

@DBZ
Congrats Kiwis just beat Proteas, and they deserved to win after such a fantastic performance ........... but for Proteas, I guess they always somehow find a new way to choke

@fpsgamerJR62
Technically the 3Gb of RAM would be 3076Mb. Other than seeming a little strange considering Nvidia use a "non-256Mb" industry standard memory bus, the "oddball" framebuffer doesn't have any detrimental effects over a 1024Mb or 2048Mb one.
My reasoning for the GTX580 3Gb comes doen to the fact that, AIB "specials"/non-reference aside, the GTX590 is the last significant card to be released until late this year (or early next) when the GTX6xx and HD7xxx series are due to launch. Something needs to fill the "new release" gap...and a GTX580 3Gb would do just that, since the only area that the present 580 doesn't dominate (in framerate) is a few titles where frame buffer limitations play a significant factor - F1 2010 in particular and multi-screen gaming in general where high levels of AA and texture are utilized.

@Archean
From the moment of that bizarre Amla dismissal, anything was possible. The South African's seem to have either a mental block or the gods turn their back on them at World Cup time.
Hopefully the team can put up a good show against England/Sri Lanka.

It was a strange one indeed, but the irony is without any shadow of doubt I would say the best (and most balanced) team of the tournament has been knocked out (probably haunted by the deamons from the past?).

Anyway, one thing which I missed to add in my last comment, I think it would be interesting to see (a comparison about) how nVidia's graphic driver performance progresses with each driver relase

The main problem with comparing driver releases- especially over an extended period of time is that even if the system configuration does not change, the software/OS suite invariably will, as will the benchmark/game version. Once a patch or bug fix is added, it pretty much throws out any previous comprisons, and re-testing the patched/bugfixed game or synthetic can present a whole new raft of problems.
Most comparisons I've seen usually involve 2 or 3 driver revisions at most, unless a whole slew of beta's are released in a short space of time.
AMD's Catalyst driver for some reason known only to Shane Baxter and a select few is performance reviewed on every release...you can see that a 2 fps increase is generally cause for joyous celebration.

Yes, I think Shane probably has a macro all set up for "No noticeable difference"

I don't know if anybody has linked this previously, but for all of the "a new driver set will turbo charge this sucker" here is the reality.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...performance-increase-radeon-hd-5870,2872.html

Remember this is a year of drivers.

Good find there G/Archean
Given that the 10.3 drivers provided a nil result in Metro 2033 using 4xMSAA, I would have thought the 62% increase was very conservative.

On a non-related note...what are the chances that Nvidia go with a hardware based power limiter similar to AMD's solution for the GTX6xx series? 99%....99.9999%?

I had the same thought. Power regulation through software???
I am sure its being reversed engineered as we speak.

2011 is shaping up at the year of the PR blunder. Between defective Intel chipsets, AMD's is it/isn't it warranty status, iPhone reception (and a few other Fruit Co. missteps) and Fourth of July GTX590's, it's as though every new product launch should be accompanied by the Benny Hill theme tune.

Indeed...It would seem that the 'quickening' applies to computer components.