HIS ATI Radeon HD 6990 Review. The Benchmarks.
Test 4 – Lost Planet 2
Single vs. Single
This benchmark only provides a figure for the average frame rate. Aside from being the closest result thus far, another interesting detail is that the performance penalty incurred when moving from 4Xaa to 8xaa, at both resolutions, its barely noticeable for either card, though at 2560×1600 the GTX 580 loses more ground relative to its rival, a discrepancy that can again be attributed to the 6990’s RAM advantage.
Crossfire vs. SLI
Moving into multi-card territory, two extra 580s is enough for Nvidia to pull ahead of ATI at 2560×1600 and extend its lead at 1920×1200.
Performance Analysis.
Despite less than stellar scaling by Nvidia’s standards, this is the first time the 580 has represented better value in both single and multi-card configurations. Overall, a single 6990 is actually a shade slower than one 580 at 1920×1200 and even though it gives a stronger showing at 2560×1600, the winning margin is only 13%, well short of its 25% target. The 580s in Tri SLI yield an advantage of 35% at 1920×1200 and 28% at 2560×1600 over ATI’s two red giants, surpassing their 20% target in each case and making this the first clean sweep for Nvidia in the price vs. performance battle.
Test 5 – Just Cause 2
Single vs. Single
A convincing victory for the 6990 at both resolutions with an ever widening gap as we enable aa and af.
Crossfire vs. SLI.
And so the pattern continues. Two additional 580s prove enough to haul in and pass cross-fired 6990s, though at 1920×1200, the CPU is once again a limiting factor. It should be noted that during each of the 6990’s runs, there was a sharp drop in frame rate towards the end which lasted between 5-10 seconds and will have had a significant impact on the results. The anomaly occurred at exactly the same point in each test and is almost certainly driver related.
Performance Analysis.
If anybody needed evidence that 1920×1200 is fast becoming a CPU bound resolution, this is about as convincing as it gets. Only a 47% gain for the 580s in TRI-SLI and a pathetic 8% for the 6990s in Quadfire. Comparing these figures to the improvements we see at 2560×1600 bears out the assertion even more, over double the gain for Nvidia at 109% and a far healthier 26% for ATI. The results for scaling follow a similar pattern with both cards working more efficiently at the higher resolution.
In the value stakes, at 1920×1200, ATI reached but did not surpass its 25% advantage for single card performance, meaning that both cards represent equal value at this resolution. At 2560×1600 however, its winning margin was an impressive 45%, which translates to 20% more performance for the price. Moving onto our multi card comparison, despite the 580s achieving higher scores at both resolutions, they still fell short of the 20% cushion required to justify the higher cost.