AMD’s dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 launched 15 years ago — power, heat, and noise monster was crowned the fastest graphics card in the world

AMD’s dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 launched 15 years ago — power, heat, and noise monster was crowned the fastest graphics card in the world

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-19/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation News Editor Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

PSUpower Ah, the good old days; when you didn't have to sell your kidneys, in order to buy a good GPU, and AMD was still competitive at the high-end. Reply

leclod PSUpower said: Ah, the good old days; when you didn't have to sell your kidneys, in order to buy a good GPU, and AMD was still competitive at the high-end. It costed 700usd in 2011, wouldn't that be 1000usd today ? (back then the US dollar was higher) AMD is competitive at the high-end (9700XT is high end to me at least). Reply

PSUpower leclod said: It costed 700usd in 2011, wouldn't that be 1000usd today ? (back then the US dollar was higher) I wasn't necessarily referring to 6990, but still; good luck buying a flagship GPU today, for "just" $1,000. Reply

Notton It's actually 2 GPUs for $700 in 2011. So you would have to double the price of a 5090 or whatever. And you wouldn't even be getting the whole deal, as 2x 5090's don't include a PCIe switch. Reply

beyondlogic Good old days when GPU were space heaters now they just catch fire Reply

ezst036 Back in the day when AMD actually tried to compete, wanted to compete, and sought to compete with Nvidia. Reply

PSUpower ezst036 said: Back in the day when AMD actually tried to compete, wanted to compete, and sought to compete with Nvidia. Nowadays, it's all about data centers sales, for both of them. Reply

thestryker Enjoying the retrospective pieces popping up and look forward to more. The biggest problem with AMD for Crossfire and dual GPU cards is that their frame pacing was a lot worse than nvidia's. So even though the 6990 was faster than the 590 it typically was a worse experience. Currently I don't think there's any reason for anyone to target the x90 tier nvidia cards, but it would be nice to see competition for everything below it. I know it wouldn't be likely to help pricing a whole lot, but it might loosen the vice grip nvidia has on the discrete market. Reply

leclod PSUpower said: I wasn't necessarily referring to 6990, but still; good luck buying a flagship GPU today, for "just" $1,000. Notton said: So you would have to double the price of a 5090 or whatever. to me 5090 is at least 6990 level or Titan or… Couldn't you think the 5080 is the current flagship at a decent price ? (the 5090 being a cherry on top because people are ready to pay for that) The 5080 launch price was $1,000 Reply

Notton 5080 going for anywhere between US$1300~1900, so $2600~$3000 + whatever a PCIe switch costs these days Reply

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