First Look: ASUS GeForce GTX 590


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NVIDIA's worst kept secret is finally official, a new dual GPU beast. Atomic puts it through its paces.

As video card launches go, the GeForce GTX 590 one hasn't exactly been secretive. They were available to buy in Australia at least 12 hours ahead of launch, and at least one very speedy Atomican has a couple running already. This card is somewhat monstrous, a fusion of two downclocked GeForce GTX 580 GPUs running with 3GB of GDDR5. Think of it as SLI on a stick.

The GTX 590 isn't a card for mere mortals, or even lesser superheroes. It draws a lot of power, needs good cooling and outputs way more than a single screen can handle. Designed to take on AMD's recently launched RADEON HD 6990, it is likely to be as fast as NVIDIA will get this generation and its performance paints a pretty good picture of how SLI in particular is faring.

We have been testing an ASUS card in the Atomic labs for a little while now. Vito will be giving a full rundown in the next Atomic, but we have done enough testing to get a good overview of how the GTX 590 stands up to its little brother, the GTX 580, and sworn enemy, the RADEON HD 6990.

Check out the photo gallery for an unboxing and some more shots of the card. The captions go into detail about some of the physical features of the board and cooler.

It must be pointed out that when David and I were first checking the card out, we were stunned by how quiet this card is under load. Barely audible above the air conditioning, it is a long way from the noise that the GTX 480 pumped out. NVIDIA really did step up and sort out the cooling and noise issues with this generation of product.

Another thing David pointed out was that someone finally thought about the labelling. These reference designs from NVIDIA have a LED backlit GeForce Logo that is actually oriented to read the right way when it is mounted inside a case. A small thing, we know, but when you are forking out over a grand for a video card the little things matter.

The card's specs are determined by the two GPUs used on the card. Each has a 384-bit memory bus driving 1.5GB GDDR5. The graphics cores run at 607MHz (With the CUDA cores at 1215Mhz), with the memory running at an effective 3414MHz. The entire card has a TDP of 365 Watts.

Our testing was done in one of our new P67 testbenches, using an ASUS ROG Maximus IV Extreme with a Core i7 2600K CPU and 4GB of Kingston DDR3. Given the spiralling power draws of late we have been using a 1200W Antec PSU, but the recommended minimum for a system with a GTX 590 is 700W.

We used Unigine Heaven, Crysis (the original not the console port) and 3DMark11. Unigine is NVIDIA's favourite benchmark thanks to its superior tesselation units, and while interesting the 'extreme' tests push it to a level that will rarely be seen in games. Tesselation performance is a good thing, but there is a good enough level that is less than Unigine's 'extreme'.

It is a moot point because the GTX 590 scored exactly the same 47fps as the RADEON HD 6990 did. It was a surprising result because of the aforementioned architectural advantages, but it shows both cards do just fine with bumpy stuff.

Crysis is still a reasonably good barometer of performance. At the moment Crysis 2 is very locked down graphically, and the DX11 version is nowhere to be seen. Once that situation improves we'll look to switching benchmarks, but for now Crysis the first is more than adequate.

The GTX 590 ran through our timedemo with an average framerate of 79.02. This was just shy of the 6990, which managed 85.87 fps. In the same test a GTX 580 gets 55.61fps. These results are largely down to scaling. AMD is doing really well with Crossfire at the moment, while NVIDIA lags behind a little with SLI. It is also good to remember that the GPUs in the GTX 590 are slower than GTX 580 ones.

We moved on to 3DMark11, and the GTX 590 again came behind the 6990. It wasnt a huge amount, the 6990 got x3277 and the GTX 590 hit x2977.

Again the 6990 wins out, but both dual GPU cards show performance well above what you would experience on a standard 1920x1080 60Hz monitor. The GTX 590 is the first card from NVIDIA with the capability to drive three monitors, which is where it really comes into its own (The 6990 can drive up to six). This is where the performance overhead is best used. NVIDIA does point out that you can dedicate a GPU to PhysX but that just seems like a monumental waste of potential.

This is a good card, if not a great one. It is currently more expensive than the RADEON HD 6990, which really does reduce its impact. Once the price drops it will be a more competitive offering, but for now you really need to be into what NVIDIA's pushing to go for the GTX 590. That pretty much means 3D Vision, which we still aren't sold on.

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7 Comments

Dazerath Mar 25, 2011 2:22 AM	Nice can't wait to see all the comparisons between 590 and the 6990, You guys will be deciding my next gpu upgrade, my 5870 is seeming a lil stale :P Keep up the great work!
Duper Mar 25, 2011 6:11 AM	hmm. Looks like they took a page out of 3DFx's book. oh wait.. they BOUGHT 3DFx .. hmmm. ;) (refer to the amount of GPUs on the Voodoo5.)
philo-sofa Mar 25, 2011 9:43 AM	3DFX was the company that invented multi-card with it's 'SLI' tech, which Nvidia aquired along with the rest of 3DFX.
smakme7757 Mar 25, 2011 9:48 AM	For reference i get x1980 on my single GTX 580.
SceptreCore Mar 25, 2011 10:43 AM	So the dual Radeon is the better? The King lives. Long live the King! And kudos to AMD.
Blackorchad Mar 25, 2011 11:49 AM	Looks cool But i still don't see a point in upgrading from my sli 8800gt - still plays every game without a single problem. rubs face against 8800
sora3 Mar 28, 2011 6:30 PM	Too bad that only 1000 of these are out. And all sold out in Australia I'm afraid... >>

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

What's in this issue?