AMD Launches Latest Monster Dual-GPU Graphics Card, Radeon HD 6990 Tested

hothardware.com

47 points·jdrucker··10 comments

Jeez, a 4 GB nitro-burning funny card that draws 1/3 kW and takes an extra slot for cooling. How long until AMD drops in a Phenom core and USB3 controller and declares "to hell with motherboards"?

Ridiculous ideas like this have a habit of already being secretly 2 years into development.

(I have no evidence, I just suspect as much)

tl;dr

Dual core, beats every cards on the market by double digits (twice as fast as latest Radeon), high consumption, expensive, a bit too noisy under load.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990-Review-Ant...

Dual core is a bit of a misnomer here - the industry standard term is dual GPU. They're two separate dies on different chips, and GPUs have been multi core in the CPU sense for quite a long time now, being able to execute multiple independent threads.

Or alternatively: more power hungry, slightly slower and more expensive than 2 of the previous cards in Crossfire configuration.

Hasn't this been true of every dual-GPU card? (With the possible exception of the more power-hungry aspect.) It's slower and more expensive because it has a smaller overall cooling system than two cards, so the chips need to be under-clocked and spec'd for higher-temperature operation.

Looks like it, yeah.

You may not necessarily want to use the cards in crossfire, in which case you get impressive performance in a one-slot package.

Or you might want to put two of these monsters in Crossfire, if you feel the need to cackle maniacally. I'm happy with my 5770 myself.

mmm Bitcoins

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