nVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Pro Reviews

It took an NVIDIA dual-GPU card to take the performance crown back from AMD and its Radeon 6990 dual-GPU card. The GTX 590 tends to wins with DX11 titles, but the Radeon 6990 can fight back -and win- on many popular games. For those who seek the absolute highest performance, this could be a good pick, and at $699, the card is priced to compete with AMD’s Radeon 6990. The card is very fast, but don’t forget that you will need a display setup that has a lot of pixels if you want to get the most out of the GeForce GTX 590. If you have a standard 1080p display, there might be other graphics card that brings more value for the money: look at the GeForce 560 Ti or the Radeon 6950. Both cost about $250.

We’re sufficiently impressed by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 and its rival the Radeon HD 6990. These graphics cards offer performance that’s simply on another level versus even the fastest single-GPU powered cards. Now let’s hope game developers get as excited over this kind of horsepower as we are and release some games that truly take advantage of their capabilities.

The GeForce GTX 590 faces a similar fate as the Radeon HD 6990. Since both are outgunned by pairing cheaper mid-range offerings like the HD 6950 (unlocked) or GTX 570, it makes more sense to go that route unless you're building a monster rig with quad-GPUs. The average gamer or enthusiast might as well skip over this generation of multi-GPU graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia.

Based on our tests, the Radeon HD 6990 has an appreciable performance lead over the GTX 590 at the same price. The GTX 590 is still breathtakingly fast—much quicker than a single GeForce GTX 580 and nearly as quick as a pair of GeForce GTX 570s or Radeon HD 6950s—but its true distinction, in our view, is its wondrously soft-spoken cooling solution. The GTX 590's cooler is vastly quieter than the boisterous blower on the Radeon HD 6990. Combine that acoustic reality with the GTX 590's shorter 11" board length and understated appearance, and a sense of its personality begins to take shape. This card is more buttoned-down than the 6990.

The GTX 590 is a card that’s full of surprises. It may not decisively beat the HD 6990 but it’s quite obvious that NVIDIA has raised the bar for dual core graphics cards by lessening the perceived shortcomings. Their solution is quiet, runs cool, doesn’t consume as much power as many were predicting and is immensely powerful while boasting one of the most complete feature sets currently available. A price which puts it on level footing with Antilles is just icing on the cake. The GTX 590’s inability to blow the HD 6990 out of the water on the performance front may disappoint some but when looked at as a complete package, we couldn’t have asked for more.

NVIDIA's new flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 590 3GB, is without a doubt the fastest NVIDIA product we have ever tested and competes in the super-high-end market very well against the Radeon HD 6990 4GB. The downside to this release is that quite clearly the GTX 590 isn't up to the task of beating the performance of the HD 6990 at the highest resolution tested, 2560x1600. At both 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, the GTX 590 was either better than or equal to the results from AMD's new flagship. The problem as I see it is that most users willing to shell out the $700 for either option are more likely to be planning for a 30-in panel or an Eyefinity/Surround monitor configuration than they are comfortable sticking at the 1080p single display resolution. If my hypothesis is true, then most will lean towards the Radeon HD 6990 than the GeForce GTX 590, all else being equal.

Ultimately we’re still looking at niche products here, so we shouldn’t lose sight of that fact. A pair of single-GPU cards in SLI/CF is still going to be faster and a bit quieter if not a bit more power hungry, all for the same price or less. The GTX 590 corrects the 6990’s biggest disadvantage versus a pair of single-GPU cards, but it ends up being no faster on average than a pair of $280 6950s, and slower than a pair of $350 GTX 570s. At the end of the day the only thing really threatened here is the GTX 580 SLI; while it’s bar none the fastest dual-GPU setup there is, at $1000 for a pair of the cards a quad-GPU setup is only another $400. For everything else, as was the case with the Radeon HD 6990, it’s a matter of deciding whether you want two video cards on one PCB or two PCBs.

Determined to reclaim the title of world's fastest single graphics card from AMD, NVIDIA has conjured the dual-GPU, 1024 CUDA core GeForce GTX 590. The most powerful card NVIDIA has ever built.

Nvidia's dual-GPU card, the GeForce GTX 590, is undoubtedly powerful. But while it's quieter than AMD's own double-barreled Radeon HD 6990, that card delivers better overall performance for the same price.

Doesn’t flag even at the most extreme settings, and by remaining relatively cool and quiet it takes the dual-GPU crown from AMD

GeForce GTX 590 is the ultimate enthusiast graphics card intended for affluent top-end gamers. It may match the competition's solution in terms of frame rate performance, but then again it also operates at lower temperatures, and does so very quietly. For elite-level gamers and hardware enthusiasts the GeForce GTX 590 represents the best you can buy, and delivers on its price point. Of course, putting together a GeForce GTX 570 SLI set is still an option, but it will consume more power and dissipate additional heat. If you're looking to match performance on the cheap, value-seeking gamers could purchase one GeForce GTX 570 now while saving to upgrade with a second unit later. You'll take up more room inside the computer case and a multi-card setup could require a new power supply unit, but it's possible so long as you're willing to make concessions.