Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 Review: Dual-GPU Wars

Julio Franco

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With AMD's Radeon HD 6990 stealing the performance crown only two short weeks ago, we knew it wouldn't be long before Nvidia answered the challenge. The company's GeForce GTX 590 was a poorly guarded secret, with specifications leaking as far back as last fall. Today marks the flagship's official launch and needless to say, we're excited to see how it stacks up to AMD's dual-GPU offering.

Read the full article at:
https://www.techspot.com/review/378-nvidia-geforce-gtx-590/

Please leave your feedback here.
 
Somehow, I was expecting team green to bring a real showstopper with the GTX590 (like they usually do), considering the extra time they took bringing it into the fray. Judging by how close many of the races were, and the give/take in performance crown for the varied testing games, it really is just a toss-up. As hard as both AMD and nVidia have been trying, there's just no hands-down winner in this current generation of GPUs. Guess I'm just not used to there being no clear-cut "victor" in these graphics battles.
 
when the fight comes between hd 6990 and gtx 590 i will prefer to buy hd 6990 as it perform almost same and also gtx is only faster in games in which both cards are giving 40+ fps for ex in far cry 2 you can not find any difference between an average of 101 and 69 fps so gtx 590 is a waste here and hd 6990 is faster in dx11 games for ex gtx 590 drop below 30 frames at 2560x1600 metro 2033 which is not good because radeon didnt drop below 30 fps at same condition. again a great review from techspot but you should give a page of triple monitor setup camparisn since both of the dual gpu beast are overkill for any single monitor setup. and i am not buying them since i am waiting for 28nm hd 7000 (southern island) which will be better performer and more power efficient. TECHSPOT PLEASE GIVE REVIEW FOR CRYSIS 2.................................
 
Good review, looked initially like the GTX 590 had a decisive edge but in the end the two look pretty even ... as dbz predicted some time back. Thanks for taking the time to review so many games ... fair to say that some sites may not take such an even handed approach.
 
Squuiid said:
st1ckm4n said:
Didn't have 2x GTX 580's to SLI? :(

+1. What a poor review! GTX580 SLI is SUCH an obvious pick when reviewing the 590.
Very disappointed

Going to assume you both totally missed this part of the review:
Realizing that, we can already assume the GTX 590 isn't going to be as fast as two GTX 580s in SLI. However, two GTX 580s would cost at least $1,000, and since the GTX 590 needs to be relatively competitive with the Radeon HD 6990 in terms of pricing, we bet Nvidia doesn't want the GTX 590 to be as quick as SLIed GTX 580s anyway.

The real valid comparison for this review is between the GTX590 and the HD6990. Putting together every ridiculously priced pairing of GPUs to throw into the mix would just muddy up the data.
 
power guzzling aside, I am estatic that this card is 11 inches. It means I could actually fit it in the Lian Li PC-Q08 without complaints from the case if I were crazy enough to do so. XD

@indiangamer: The results are superficial as "your mileage may vary." Benchmarks results provided by tech sites are to offer you a general idea of how hardware will work, but other things need to be taken into consideration such as differences in hardware and software suites. Incidentally, I also usually discount the more extreme resolutions such as 2650x1600 in terms of sheer performance, simply not enough people have a screen resolution; they'd be more likely to have a pair or perhaps three smaller screens at 1680x1050 or 1920x1080/1200. Which is a point you do make (sorta); It'd be nice to see how these ultra-enthusiast cards handle games in AMD eyefinity/NVIDIA Surround.

Making those discounts, there really is no winner in this case of pure performance to me. The 590 and 6990 simply are trading blows back and forth, prior to any major consumer driver updates. At the same price point it makes it harder to decide between the two from a practicality stand point (though neither card can be considered practical in the first place lol).

A considerable advantage though comes from power usage and heat generation, compared to the next step or so down in crossfire/SLI. In terms of operating efficiency both dual GPU cards are better than a pair of 570/580/6950/6970, while taking less physical space (which in itself is a blessing in some cases)

Worth the $700 price tag? That's ultimately up to the user but I don't need that kind of performance (never have), though bragging rights are always nice. :)
 
I would think the power consumption and the lower heat would make it a better choice then the 6990, just my opinion.
 
zillion said:
I would think the power consumption and the lower heat would make it a better choice then the 6990, just my opinion.

While the GTX590 does stay marginally cooler, it consumes marginally more power than the HD6990. Guess it all depends on whether you weight continuous power draw or cooling to be the more critical item in your build.
 
6990 does better in dx11 and has less power consumption so i think it wins by a very slight margin.
everyone has different priorities though.
 
zecias said:
6990 does better in dx11 and has less power consumption so i think it wins by a very slight margin.
everyone has different priorities though.

I've heard the contrary. I've heard the 6990, or radeons for that matter, do worse in comparison to Nvidia cards at DX11. Mainly DirectCompute and tessellation. I don't know if this has been fixed in any of the recent catalyst updates though, so don't take my word for it.
 
Cool... Thank you TS for the review
$700, yikes, I do not think it will be selling very well, especially considering the SLI/CrossFire alternatives available.
Personally I have a GTS 450, low power consumption, great for mid settings at mid resolutions. But wow, some of the frame rates for this card are amazing.
 
Seems like a lot less work than waiting around for someone else to give you the answer and then get an answer that isn't right, and then get a correction for the answer that still doesn't answer your question.
 
Way to expensive for me i have a R HD 5770 and it stills do the job well, however DAO2 lagged on some scenes but it still was highly playable, so for me is a not while is that expensive :p.

AND the Raedon 6950 has more performance than the 6990 and for the greedy bastards like me heres a tip:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

and how the 6950 beats GTX 580 (since you can buy 2 6950's and crossfire them and spend less than a GTX 580, maybe the GTX 590 too?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlX4o2ZXIKs
 
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