| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Gemini Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Thursday, 24 March 2011 | |
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Gemini Review
Manufacturer: NVIDIA Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by NVIDIA. Poised to compete against AMD's Radeon HD 6990, NVIDIA launches their own dual-Fermi GF110-based GeForce GTX 590 video card.March madness indeed. Just last week AMD made news with their dual-Cayman GPU Radeon HD 6990 video card, and days later NVIDIA is returning with their own competitor. Designed around their flagship GeForce GTX 580 video card, they've combined two titanic graphics processors into a package roughly the same size, and still manage to produce the quietest dual-GPU video card ever made. With 512 CUDA cores each, two independent NVIDIA GF110 GPUs join to deliver 1024 total cores of graphical processing power. There are six 64-bit memory controllers that offer 384-bit combined bandwidth per GPU, and feed 3GB of combined GDDR5 video frame buffer. All of this is said to deliver comparable performance to the Radeon HD 6990, which is good for gamers, but it does so while running cooler and emitting less noise. When it comes to computer hardware there's something for everyone, and this rings especially true for graphics cards. If you're on a tight budget but still like to point and shoot your way through levels, there are plenty of affordable entry-level products that can satisfy your needs. But if you're an enthusiast gamer who demands only the highest level of performance that far surpasses mainstream standards, the graphics industry continues to cherish your business. Fierce competition between NVIDIA and AMD have allowed PC gamers to enjoy the best graphics hardware ever developed for desktop computers. NVIDIA has worked hard to earn their reputation as the industry leader in desktop graphics, and the codename 'Gemini' graphics card is proof to their dedication. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the GeForce GTX 590 against the AMD Radeon HD 6990 and an entire market of top-end desktop graphics solutions. In what could be hailed as Fermi's final chapter, NVIDIA continues to update their product family by adding the GeForce GTX 590 to the ranks. The GeForce GTX 590 is intended to achieve the best performance possible while remaining power-efficient and quiet during heavy operation. Only 11.0-inches long, the GeForce GTX 590 is capable of installing into standard ATX computer cases where fitting video cards such as the AMD Radeon HD 6990 would be impossible. Additionally, NVIDIA has invested more research into vapor chamber technology, and developed a cooling solution that tames temperatures for two GF110 GPUs using only one fan. This enables hardcore gamers to configure two GTX 590's into quad-SLI, presuming the motherboard and power supply support the requirements. All of this adds up to more potential performance for gamers, and some serious enthusiast credibility for overclockers.
Something happened to the Fermi architecture between the time it premiered as GF100 and when it began to really turn heads as GF104: the ratio of shaders and texture units was perfected. The original GF100 GPU placed too much emphasis on tessellation, and not enough on overall graphical performance. As a result of finding the right balance, the GF104 graphics processor on the GeForce GTX 460 became an overnight sensation for gamers. Now evolved into the GF110 GPU, all 512 cores understand their purpose and propel the GeForce GTX 580 to a level only rivaled by the competition's best and most-expensive dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 graphics card. Trimmed down to a modest 244 watts of power consumption under load, the GTX 580 outperforms its predecessor in both power efficiency graphical performance. NVIDIA targets the GeForce GTX 590 at premium upper-end segment willing to spend $700 on their discrete graphics, which admittedly includes only the most affluent gamers. To best illustrate GTX 590's performance, we use the most demanding PC video game titles and benchmark software available. Graphical frame rate performance is tested against a large collection of competing desktop products, such as the Radeon HD 6990 and various SLI/CrossFire configurations. Using the DirectX-9 API that is native to Windows XP, we've compared graphics performance using Mafia II. Some older DirectX-10 favorites such as Crysis Warhead and PCMark Vantage are included, as well as newer DirectX-11 titles such as: Aliens vs Predator, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, BattleForge, Lost Planet 2, Metro 2033, Tom Clancy's HAWX2, along with the Unigine Heaven 2.1 and 3dMark11 benchmarks.
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Comments
but i will wait until aftermarket coolers for 6990 appears
anyway i appreciate great competitions like this one
If the results show low power use in Furmark for the 590, you know the card is activating its limiter, therefor the temp/noise reading are not realistic.
Simply put the power/temp/fan noise should be done on the games as you benched them, its all to easy to program a driver to fool one application to make it look and sound good.
Thanks
Actually, the hardware sits in a big box for retests and other projects. After a year or so, they become gifts or sold for what little they're still worth.
Hey- I never did see any of your work from PAX! Hope it was fun, and worth the visit.
They really need to put some 2g or even 3g of mem on those 580 cards.
I'm pretty sure that's not right.
So what's up next week?
When you look at the things that are not bias towards either product IE Heaven benchmark. Thats where you see the real difference in the cards. All this end talk about features is complete garbage. You can say the same for ATI there card and 3d bluray is far superior then the Nvidia solution. Eyefinity maybe a novel feature but it does work. Something Nvidia has yet to even come close to matching. Heck this is first card with 3 monitors support. Also the displayport is a mute point because ATI is now including a displayport adaptor that illiminates the super high cost of this solution among other reasons could state that this is not a fd it will eventually be the standard. If your going to skew your review because you like nvidia just do it at the begining. Its getting extremely old seeing the bait and switch from both sides.
Some of your remarks are a relief to me, because they show how uninformed you truly are. According to you, features like PhysX, 3D Vision, and CUDA support don't matter. I suggest you start asking around, because like it or not those 'garbage' features help sell these products.
By the way, those 'biased' NVIDIA games that always score the highest... games like BattleForge and Battlefield Bad Company 2... those are AMD co-developed games, not NVIDIA.
Then Toro's jumped on this forum and blogged his ATI Fanboy Mumbo Jumbo. But you know what, that's ok, Handicap need a place to lay their heads at night. If he had read the whole review he would have seen that facts. 1. The 6990 has its pro's and con's. Fact 2, The Nvidia and ATI cards are pretty neck and neck. Fact 3, the 590 won 5, tied 5 and (barley) lost 5. I don't know how anyone could have taken this review as "BIAS" towards Nvidia. I am an Nvidia fan, but I own a 6990 and 2 580 GTX's, they are both powerful................nevermind, I know if Toros is reading this it wont make sense so i will save my time.
Interesting read though. I am anxious to see how the cards compare at their overclocked overvolted limits on reference cooler.
For all I know next year could have big stuff for processors.
The rest of you fanboys should really stop honestly. In the case of the 6990 and 590, what is there really to say one card is superior to the other? I don't find 50w less, 5c degrees less or a card that runs EVER SO quieter to the other good ways of saying my card beats yours. There is no real pure power difference. So I must agree with Colin above and say they are both virtually the same exact cards.
I just have to stick with purchasing Nvidia however for my 3D setup, no biggie.
I was wondering if the 6990 still had the aggressive AF optimizations which results in texture shimmering. I am referring to the AF optimization discovered earlier and brought up in an nViDIA blog.
I really hate texture shimmering, that is a deciding factor for me. If I have to switch setting around in Catalyst in order to get rid of shimmering the benchmark results would not indicate the actual performance I'll get from 6990.
Thanks in advance.
#benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12845&Itemid=47
Usually shimmering (if it's present) can easily be seen in Half-Life 2 in road or railroad parts of the map which extend long into the horizon.
I remember having horrible shimmering in HL2 back when I had 7800GTX.
In the Unigine night scene you mention, can you get rid of shimmering by setting Catalyst AI to high or turning it off altogether?
I suppose in the same Unigine scene , GTX 590 is not showing any shimmering?
Thanks for the reply btw.
##tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/grafikkarten/amd_radeon_hd_6870_h d_6850/s09.php
Can you get rid of shimmering by fiddling with Cat AI ? Does the GTX 590 show the same amount of shimmering as well? In HL2 particularly, since it can easily be detected when moving the camera.
Neither AMD nor NVidia are charities. You want a bleeding edge product, prepare to bleed the cash.
Yes NVIDIA does include HDMI with their cards, I can only assume it is up to AIB partners whether it will be mini-HDMI or a full size port.