NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Graphics Card
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Performance tests
Testbed:
- Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
- ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
- 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
- WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
- Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
- 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
- VSync disabled
- NVIDIA Drivers 267.24, 267.26, 267.59, 267.71
- ATI CATALYST 11.4 beta
Benchmarks:
- Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) — DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
- Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
- Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) — DirectX 10.0/11.0, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
- Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
- Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, run from in game.
- Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11.0, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
- F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11.0, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
- Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) — DirectX 10.0, High settings.
- Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (Unigine) — DirectX 11.0, High settings.
- 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11.0, Performance settings.
We'd like to thank Unigine for helping us set up their benchmarks.
Far Cry 2
Crysis Warhead, Cargo
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Metro 2033
Just Cause 2
Aliens vs. Predator
F1 2010
Tropics Benchmark 1.3
Heaven Benchmark 2.0
3DMark 11
Conclusions
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 is a very powerful graphics card, a competitor to the recently announced Radeon HD 6990. Unfortunately, the latter remains the champion, winning in more than half of all tests. But GeForce GTX 590 is much better in terms of cooler noise, its cooler being much quieter. So if you need a very powerful and quiet card, GeForce GTX 590 is your choice.
Another good thing about GeForce GTX 590 is that it's much shorter than Radeon HD 6990, measuring 280x111x33 mm. This should make it easier for you to find a suitable enclosure. Although enthusiasts (whom the card is aimed at) usually choose very spacious PC cases anyway, especially considering total power consumption of their machines.
Speaking of power consumption, GeForce GTX 590 consumes up to 370W — something you can expect from such a monster. This is similar to what Radeon HD 6990 consumes in the typical mode. As you can see, you will need a very powerful PSU of 800W or more.
Let's see what's more reasonable in terms of price. As you can see from performance diagrams, a couple of GeForce GTX 570 in a SLI configuration occasionally outperform a single GeForce GTX 590. So if two GeForce GTX 570 are cheaper than one GeForce GTX 590 (MSRP of $699), you may consider buying the former, because most SLI-equipped motherboards nowadays have two PCIe x16 slots. As for GeForce GTX 590, it will benefit owners of 'SLI-less' motherboards (e.g. those based on AMD chipsets). So watch the prices. And if actual prices for Radeon HD 6990 and GeForce GTX 590 are similar, also decide what's more important for you: the highest performance or somewhat lower performance and quiet operation.
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