• Nvidia GTX 590 Review

    Nvidia GTX 590 Review

    Roydon Cerejo, Apr 01, 2011 1447 hrs IST

    Find out if it dethrones the HD 6990

    Great performance, fan is eerily silent, consumes relatively less power on load, very good design, 3DVision Surround ready, PhysX and CUDA support, better driver support

    Idle power consumption is a bit higher compared to HD 6990, expensive

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Nvidia's response to AMD's Antilles is here and we finally have a competition going. Nvidia has taken its time to develop this dual GPU monster and we are really impressed with the build and design of its reference card. Let's just get the specifications out of the way first. 



As you probably know by know by now, the GTX 590 is made possible by slapping together two GTX 580 cores onto a single PCB. That's two full Fermi cores with 512 shaders each running in SLI, now that's horsepower. Nvidia has paid special attention to the cooling aspect and noise levels of the fan ever since its GTX 480 was like having a hair dryer installed in your rig. Before we get to it, let's start off with the design of the card.


Instead of having just a plastic block covering the cooler, which is the case of the HD 6990, there's a nice pattern on either sides of the fan and the rear as well. Nvidia prides itself on the new fan design which it says only produces 48db, which is quite something. The card still measures 11-inch in length which means it will easily fit in most mid-tower cases.



Having two Fermi GPUs onboard means the GTX 590 is ready for 3DVision Surround out of the box. There are three dual-link DVI-I connectors and a mini-DP connector.  The backside of the cores is covered by heat spreaders as well for additional cooling.



The card is powered by two 8-pin power connectors. Here's a really nice treat for enthusiasts, if you have a windowed cabinet then you'll be able to see the Geforce logo as its backlit. Forget the performance, I'd pick one of these up just for this. I think Nvidia should put this on all its dual slot cards and even encourage manufacturers to do the same. Think about it, board partners spend a lot of effort on the sticker on the front of the card but what's the use since once installed, you can't see it anyways.



Here are some more shots of the GTX 590 without the cooler. The two vapor chambers are placed directly above the two cores.

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Discussion Board
(14) Comments
miscellaneous
,bangalore, on Apr 04, 2011 12:34 AM
I am glad that u didnot blow your cards like others while benchmarking :D
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Computer madnes
,ddwdw, on Apr 03, 2011 02:15 PM
mmmm, this should be a big lose for ATI, because nvidia's next driver (270 bet series) will beat it easly after it gets WHQL. Nvidia with it's driver can make alot of thing for their cards compared to ATI. surely they deserve it
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bhavin
,ahmedabad, on Apr 03, 2011 12:16 PM
its good review for a graphics card which can be king for old games plus you only have to pay k of easily earned money. anyways im not gonna have this card because its fabulous price. I had many options other than this card with less money spent on them which can be a king on recent games.!!!!!!
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sameer
,bhubaneswer, on Apr 02, 2011 08:12 PM
ati is the boss .. no nvidia is better when is comes to price bracket ... the latest driver is making things smooth like butter .. and my 6850 is leader in class ...
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Ryuzaki
,mumbai, on Apr 02, 2011 11:36 AM
The results here are rather misleading. The ati radeon 6990 actually outperforms the gtx 590 by a considerable margin if you were to use the catalyst 11.4 preview version.
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Ryuzaki
,mumbai, on Apr 02, 2011 11:40 AM
I am not sure about the validity of your scores but on most benchmarking sites the ati 6990 beats the gtx 590 other than in "the way it is meant to be played' (nvidia optimized games). Please do cite the drivers used so that this can be construed being a legit review.
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Kashman16
,Geek Squad, on Apr 02, 2011 11:05 AM
WHERE IS 6990 IN THE DIRT 2 BENCHMARK????!!!! Review is a Joke!!! Only selected the games that would favor the GTX590 a little. In most games GTX 590 would be destroyed by the HD 6990.
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apaul
,Kolkata, on Apr 01, 2011 10:52 PM
extremely biased and fanboyish review.....you are really the only review website who said that the GTX590 is better....and furthermore what is up with you guys using year old games rather than using current gens???
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SamRock
,Bangalore, on Apr 01, 2011 09:09 PM
Sorry I am not ready this review. You are testing the same old games everytime since a year or two! Here we are testing some of the most advanced graphics cards and you are not even considering the latest games to try them on! Come on, how many of us play Crysis Warhead or STALKER or FarCry 2 anymore? How about Battlefield Bad Company 2? Crysis 2? Even COD MW2... Why would I buy an expensive card and play a 2 year old game?
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SamRock
,Bangalore, on Apr 01, 2011 09:12 PM
EDIT: Sorry I am not *reading* this review. :P
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muzu
,PCity, on Apr 01, 2011 08:22 PM
Cards like these are to be tested on 30'' Monitor at 2560x1650.. If you don't have 30' monitor in your labs, please my humble request is not to review such cards.. Moreover, do include the driver you used for AMD card.
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muzu
,PCity, on Apr 01, 2011 08:11 PM
The reviewer seems to me a fanboy and this article his best JOKE! .. no offense
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Anonymous
,Pune, on Apr 01, 2011 05:54 PM
this is the only site which says that the GTX590 is better than the AMD 6990 !
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Someone
,Ghy, on Apr 01, 2011 03:54 PM
These cards are meant for multiple monitors and res higher then 1920x1080. Thats where the 6990 shines. Call me a fanboy but at res higher then 1080p and multiple monitors the 6990 is a better card and anyone planning on running those res should buy the 6990.
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