Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 Review - PAGE 16

Temperature:

To measure core GPU temperature, MSI's Kombustor was used. The idle temperature was taken after leaving nothing running for up to 15 minutes. The load temperature was taken 15 minutes after starting Kombuster for Multi-Core graphics cards

In terms of overall temperature the GTX 590 at load performs at roughly the same thermal level as the HD 6990. The difference between the two cards is that the HD 6990 is extremely loud, while the GTX 590 has a very low acoustic level. So, while they both share a low 80°C thermal rating at load, the GTX 590 is able to do so without being overly noisy even at a high fan RPM.

Power Usage:

To measure power usage, a Kill A Watt P4400 power meter was used. Note that the above numbers represent the power drain for the entire benchmarking system, not just the video cards themselves. For the 'idle' readings we measured the power drain from the desktop, with no applications running; for the 'load' situation, we took the sustained peak power drain readings at the end of a 30 minute Kombustor run.

For a dual GPU graphics card, the power rating of the GTX 590 is actually very good. In comparison to all the other products that utilized dual cores (in either SLI/CrossFire or a single solution) the GTX 590 consumes the least amount of power. Still, the total system power rating was over 500W, which will require a power supply with a rating of at least 700W to fully power the board and additional components.

Conclusion:

When a flagship product such as the GTX 590 is released, the first aspect most inquiring minds gravitate to is the overall performance level and in that regard the GTX 590 is an exceptional graphics card that can compete frame-for-frame with the fastest cards currently available. This is not to say the GTX 590 is an outright HD 6990 killer, as the results in our benchmarking tests tended to go back and forth between the two models, with the GTX 590 performing better in five of our eleven benchmarks.

So, the performance difference between the two appears to be very close, but the HD 6990 might just have the slightest performance edge due to its larger frame buffer and higher clock speeds. However, it really depends on the game and which architecture it is optimized for. Also, the performance of the GTX 590 essentially matches dual GTX 570 graphics cards, but with the GTX 590 you get that performance level on a single PCB along with a lower TDP.

Where the GTX 590 really stands out over the HD 6990 is in its total size, sound and power consumption. The HD 6990 is unfortunately extremely loud, especially when the fan is at high RPM, which can be rather annoying when dealing with the sound for long periods of time, or when it interferes with your gaming experience. The GTX 590 on the other hand is an extremely quiet solution and even when the fan is at high RPM, the overall acoustics are still very good. We were actually very impressed with this aspect of the GTX 590, as this card is definitely the quietest dual GPU graphics card we have used to-date. The GTX 590 also manages to come in a full inch shorter than the HD 6990, which gives it a wider availability of supported cases, and it also uses slightly less power than the HD 6990.

The GTX 590 is also a very unique solution, being the first single PCB graphics card from Nvidia to support Nvidia Surround and 3D Surround technologies. This could be a huge selling point for consumers looking to optimize space and still have full access to these features. The GTX 590 also gives users the ability to configure the GPU settings via the Nvidia control panel. This can either be setting the GPUs to scale together in an SLI configuration or you can also set one GPU to run 3D applications, while the second GPU is dedicated solely to PhysX.

In conclusion, the GTX 590 is a very elegant graphics card which boasts performance that rivals, and at at times even exceeds that of the HD 6990, but it does so at quieter noise levels. Additionally, the GTX 590 natively supports technologies such as 3D Surround out-of-the-box, and the GPUs can even be configured to best fit the user’s demands. All of these along with the $699 price point make it an excellent option for any high-end gamer willing to shell out top dollar for a serious gaming solution.

Lastly, we have Nvidia describing the GTX 590 in their own words.