Having the fastest graphics card available can be quite a money spinner for AMD and NVIDIA, the kudos that comes from having just that top end card filters down through enthusiasts and word of mouth to sales in lower specification parts. And because of that, in past generations we have seen the sales swing backward and forward between these two manufacturers as their various architectures took the lead at one point or another. Then in the most recent generations we actually had something an little bit different, AMD had the fastest graphics card in form of the Radeon HD 5970 edition however NVIDIA had the fastest GPU with the GeForce GTX 580. Both could stake some claim to having the best. - HeavenMedia

AMD Radeon HD 6990 Graphics Card Version Preview

Now several months after the release of these Radeon HD 6800 series, we finally have the release of the video card which replaces the dual GPU based Radeon HD 5970, a product designed to be the fastest single PCB based graphics card on the planet and one that might just beat two of the competitors when those are using SLI technology. That product is the Radeon HD 6990 and today we will be putting it up against the GeForce GTX 580 including SLI as well as this Radeon HD 5970 to find out how this newest card from AMD compares. This Radeon HD 6990 board has a black heatsink shroud and single red cooling fan.

This is a big card with a black, metal backplate on the rear which lets us see the location of these two GPU's as well as the single CrossFire connector which will allow us to join two cards together. One of the first things that AMD were keen to tell us was that the Radeon HD 6990 card is designed not to be taken apart. The reason for this is that AMD are using a new thermal material between the GPU's and the vapor chamber heatsinks which sit on top of each. When warmed for the first time this new thermal material changes phase and should the cooler simply be removed it will never perform at the same level, unless re-apply different paste.

As we noted earlier there are two BIOS's available on this Radeon HD 6990 with one offering an higher voltage for overclockers. With that BIOS enabled we began our overclocking experience on the Radeon HD 6990 card, noting that AMD have opened up an much wider range of speeds than normal. Our sample eventually topped out at 1000MHz on the core and 5780MHz for the memory. So in creating the Radeon HD 6990 graphics card AMD set themselves the goal of exceeding every single PCB graphics card on the market, including their own Radeon HD 5970 which was the fastest product available on a single PCI Express slot.

The product that is being released as a result of this work is one which feels like it is built to last with a solid heatsink shroud and metal backplate which keep the card from warping or being damaged. Related to the cooler itself AMD have made improvements while we feel they need to go much further. We also need to take into account that the video card is very flexible when not being used as a gaming powerhouse. In desktop use the Radeon HD 6990 runs near silent and is capable of accelerating Blu-ray content, enhancing our productivity in tasks such as video encoding and can even form the basis of a stereoscopic 3D system.

We do need to note however that AMD, as with their cooling solutions, still need to work on their stereoscopic 3D gaming as the current solution is nowhere near the level of NVIDIA to date. Now, in terms of value, AMD and their partners have the price of the Radeon HD 6990 pretty much spot on. It sits at the same level as two GeForce GTX 570's and often performs above them. In fact their Radeon HD 6990 regularly competes with two GeForce GTX 580 cards which are significantly more expensive than the single AMD graphics card.