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It wouldn't be an HIS box without the image of a sword on the front. The artwork is rather dull if we are being honest.
The bundle, as we mentioned earlier today, contains a tri of cables to help the owner connect the card to various panel configurations. A miniDP to SL-DVI passive, a miniDP to SL-DVI active, and a miniDP to HDMI passive cable are included.
The HIS card is a reference design, with HIS branding on the front. The same small red fan takes centerstage across the PCB.
As this is a retail sample, there is a yellow sticker covering the bios switch. . The AMD HD6990 will ship in the default position of ’2′. This is a factory supported clock setting (830mhz) with voltage set to 1.12. Position ’1′ is a ‘hardware’ overdrive option with increased clocks, 880mhz on the core and an increased voltage setting of 1.175. They are naming this the ‘AUSUM’ or ‘Antilles Unlocking Switch for Uber Mode’, which we don’t expect to become a widely used acronym.
The card is crossfire capable and requires two 8 pin power connectors to operate correctly.
AMD are using 4GB of quality Hynix H5GQ2H24MFR memory rated to 6ghz.
AMD advised reviewers to avoid disassembling the card until the testing was completed. They are using a ‘phase change TIM' which, apparently, offers 8% better thermal performance. When the connection is broken between GPU core and cooler, the TIM has to be removed.
AMD are using the latest generation digital programmable Volterra regulators on the card, to deliver increased efficiency with higher current capacity. The regulators are located at the centre of the board, in a symmetrical layout, to provide efficient power delivery to each GPU and its associated memory. Premium ASICs are screened for high speed and low leakage properties.
Above, GPUz highlights the two different BIOS settings available from the switch on the PCB. AMD class this as ‘HD6990 OC' mode.
Connectivity is covered by 4x miniDP connectors (DP 1.2), and a single DL-DVI port.
lol, bet you wish they could run in a 3x 6x setup !
14,000 in 3dmark 11. I thought i was doing well, breaking 5k last week 🙁 I suck.
Wow. just wow. AMD are owning everyone this week……..
YAY! 48k in vantage. insane, this card just friggin rocks.
I wouldnt be getting all too excited just yet, Nvidia have yet to unleash the GTX590 which I would think might kick the 6990’s arse.
The nvidia architecture is slightly more powerful overall, but its all about temperatures, otherwise they would both slap three cores on a PCB and duke it out. its not quite that simple.
its actually a feat of engineering in itself that AMD got this crappy single fan to cool such a powerful card. I almost choked on my cornflakes when I saw that tiny red fan, used YET again.
Man I’d love four screens and two of these. Best start saving.
Oh yeah and a new psu
And a new CPU
Damn…..
Crazy frame rates, do we really need kind of power? Best game in months was dead space 2 and it could run well with a 6850.
Portal 2 should be the same….
Hey quick question. Whats this sticker over the bios switch, do you void warranty by running the card at full speed? Is it dangerous? I really really don’t get this…
hell when you limit an overclocked 12 core intel processor at 2560 then you know you have something special !
One thing is certain, you wont be running this setup on a 650W psu. I think a 1200w is a minimum for this setup. might get away with 1000w, but it would be rather highly loaded with the rest of the components in the mix.
That performance is just stupid. as in stupid good, not stupid sucky.