How we test
Test Methodology
We'd normally graph up the results for a 1,680x1,050 resolution - the benchmarks are done - but there really is little point in showing how the card's performance doesn't change as we switch to 1,920x1,080. The subsystem, composed of an Intel 980X chip, simply cannot feed the card quickly enough for it to make a difference at the lower settings, and, honestly, if you're purchasing a Radeon HD 6990 4GB card to game at 16x10 then there's something missing in your logic.
Let the 16-card battle commence.
GPU comparisons |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics cards | Current pricing | GPU clock (MHz) | Stream processors | Shader clock (MHz) | Memory clock (MHz) | Memory bus (bits) | Graphics driver |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 4,096MB | £550 | 830 / 880 | 3,072 | 830 / 880 | 5,000 | 256 x 2 | Catalyst 11.4 |
| HIS Radeon HD 6970 2,048MB | £280 | 880 | 1,536 | 880 | 5,500 | 256 | Catalyst 10.12P |
| PowerColor Radeon HD 6950 2,048MB | £225 | 800 | 1,440 | 800 | 5,000 | 256 | Catalyst 11.1a |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 1,024MB | £195 | 800 | 1,440 | 800 | 5,000 | 256 | Catalyst 11.1a |
| HIS Radeon HD 6870 1,024MB | £175 | 900 | 1,120 | 900 | 4,200 | 256 | Catalyst 10.12 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1,024MB | £130 | 775 | 960 | 775 | 4,000 | 256 | Catalyst 10.12 |
| HIS Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB | £500 | 725 | 3,200 | 725 | 4,000 | 256 x 2 | Catalyst 10.12P |
| XFX Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB | £190 | 825 | 1,600 | 825 | 4,800 | 256 | Catalyst 10.10P |
| XFX Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB | £155 | 725 | 1,440 | 725 | 4,000 | 256 | Catalyst 10.10P |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1,536MB | £390 | 772 | 512 | 1,544 | 4,008 | 384 | ForceWare 262.99 |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1,280MB | £265 | 732 | 480 | 1,464 | 3,800 | 320 | ForceWare 263.09 |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1,024MB | £190 | 822 | 384 | 1,644 | 4,008 | 256 | ForceWare 266.56 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB | £195 | 700 | 480 | 1,401 | 3,698 | 384 | ForceWare 262.99 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 470 1,280MB | £190 | 607 | 448 | 1,215 | 3,348 | 320 | ForceWare 260.89 |
| KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB | £140 | 675 | 336 | 1,350 | 3,600 | 256 | ForceWare 266.56 |
| EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB | £135 | 675 | 336 | 1,350 | 3,600 | 192 | ForceWare 260.89 |
Test bench |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition (3.33GHz, 12MB L3 cache, hexa-core, LGA1366) | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P6X58D Premium | |||||||||||
| Memory | 6GB Corsair DDR3 (9-9-9-24-1T @ 1,600MHz) | |||||||||||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX1000W | |||||||||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP | |||||||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Corsair Force F80 SSD | |||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit | |||||||||||
Benchmarks |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Vantage | DX10, run at the 'high' preset with overall, GPU and Feature Test 4 scores noted. | |||||||||||
| Unigine Heaven | DX11, 1,920x1,080, various tessellation modes. | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 2xAA, 16xAF, very high quality. | |||||||||||
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | DX9, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| Crysis Warhead | DX10, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, gamer quality, Frost map, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| DiRT 2 | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, London map. | |||||||||||
| Just Cause 2 | DX10, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, Dark Tower benchmark | |||||||||||
| Mafia II | DX9, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, AA on, 16x AF, built-in benchmark | |||||||||||
| Power consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test. | |||||||||||
| Noise | A PCE-318 noise level meter is placed at front of a Corsair 700D chassis with side panel on. | |||||||||||
