Final Thoughts

Equally keen as we were to check out the Radeon HD 6990, after working with a number of dual-GPU Radeon generations we knew we weren't in for a big surprise. The Radeon Hd 6990 is very similar to the older HD 5970 minus a few notable improvements.

In terms of performance, nosotros had a rough idea of what to expect based on the specifications AMD had sent to us with weeks of apprehension. What we take here is a pair of slightly diluted Radeon HD 6970 GPUs squeezed onto a unmarried PCB. With core clock speeds reduced by vi% and the retentiveness frequency lowered by 9%, on average the Radeon HD 6990 was half dozen% slower than two Radeon HD 6970 Crossfire graphics cards.

Power consumption figures did surprise us, having the Radeon HD 6990 suck downwards 15% less power nether load when compared to the Radeon Hard disk 6970 Crossfire graphics cards. Despite being the almost power hungry unmarried graphics bill of fare on the planet, the Radeon Hard disk 6990 is really very efficient, more than so than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580, for example.

Out of the 14 games that we tested with, the Radeon Hd 6990 was on average 48% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 and 46% faster than the Radeon HD 5970. It was as well 66% faster than a single Radeon HD 6970, with Crossfire scaling well on almost scenarios.

While this all sounds very positive, nosotros consider the steep $700 price tag to be a showstopper. Although having a single graphics card tin be convenient, it's difficult to justify a price premium for the luxury when two separate cards are non only cheaper but likewise a flake faster. Most the same level of performance can be achieved with a pair of Radeon HD 6950 graphics cards for $100 less. Meanwhile, most of these cards tin be unlocked to HD 6970 specifications making them a seriously good value.

Moreover, like all multi-GPU graphics cards, the Radeon Hd 6990 relies heavily on driver back up to perform every bit intended. Every fourth dimension a new game is released it's likely that the Radeon HD 6990 volition non fully back up it (taking advantage of the two GPUs) until AMD updates the Catalyst driver. Without full Crossfire support, the Radeon Hard disk 6990 volition perform somewhere in betwixt a unmarried Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 graphics card, which is pretty decent but non worthy of $700.

Make it official, the Radeon Hard disk 6990 is hands down the fastest graphics card on the market, outperforming previous generation dual-GPU products by a long shot.

Now, we can't decide for you whether it makes sense to spend $700 on this graphics menu or not. Information technology's certainly overnice having the choice. Merely every bit far as nosotros are concerned even a $600 cost signal would have fabricated us call up twice nearly the dissimilar alternatives unless say, you are building a monster rig worthy of quad GPUs.

Never mind what we believe, already there are a few cards floating around in retail, though it seems finding a Radeon HD 6990 for $700 won't be easy with most upwards around $740.

Update - Dual-BIOS support: Some of you noticed we didn't mention one of the Radeon Hard disk 6990's unique features. Dual-BIOS support tin can exist toggled from a physical unlocking switch on the card, which switches between the mill-supported BIOS of 375W (tested throughout this review) and an "Extreme Performance BIOS" that boosts core clock speed from 830MHz to 880MHz and in the procedure throttles power consumption to a staggering 450W. What you should know: operation difference was negligible when overclocking the bill of fare.