As you might have noticed AMD launched their new Radeon HD 6990 today, and we were at hand to analyse firstly the reference board. We know that discerning readers want to see how two of these video cards perform in an dual CrossFireX configuration. As such we will be putting two of these Radeon HD 6990's through their paces across single screen and four screen configurations and comparing them against many of the mainstream boards available on the market today. We will show you how insanely fast are two of these cards when paired up but also how hot do these get. And can you live with this noise and how much power do they need. Quite a few thing we are keen to get some insights. - KitGuru

HIS Radeon HD 6990 CrossFireX Quad Config Review

It wouldn't be an HIS box without the image of a sword on the front. Their artwork is rather dull if we are being honest. The HIS card is a reference design, with their branding on the front. The same small red cooling fan takes centerstage across the design. As this is a retail sample, there is a yellow sticker covering the BIOS switch. The AMD Radeon HD 6990 will ship at default position. This is the factory supported clock setting of 830MHz and voltage while the other position, being the overdrive option will give increased clocks, 880MHz on the core and an increased voltage setting. It's CrossFire capable and requires two 8-pin power connectors.

With most games the scaling is extremely impressive, especially when we move to a four screens setup. Titles such as Crysis improved noticeably, meaning we could actually raise the image quality an little more if wanted. As we mentioned earlier, the AMD reference cooler can get noisy and this is just magnified when running two cards side by side. The radiated heat means that the fan has to work much harder, almost at full speed and greatly audible towards rather annoying. These HIS Radeon HD 6990 doesn't offer anything new when compared with the AMD reference sample, because all that is new is a sticker with a sword on it.

Their bundle is decent however, as they did include all the necessary cables and adapters for multiple screen configurations. The AMD cooler is actually not a bad design because it has to deal with a tremendous amount of heat when loaded. Sadly enough, it can get rather loud and we really do hope that some partners can release something more substantial, preferably with larger dual fans to offer much reduced noise levels. The Radeon HD 6990 graphics cards in CrossFireX is a performance enthusiast users wet dream, but we aren't sure that many people would be willing to live with the noise levels on a day to day basis.

Buying two of these boards would set you back $1250 which is a lot of money, however when you consider that last year XFX were selling the Radeon HD 5970 Black edition card for $1000 each then it doesn't look like such a bad deal. The Radeon HD 6990 is considerably more powerful than the Radeon HD 5970, even compared to the modified XFX version.