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Gainward, Point of View or neither?

BillTheButcher

BillTheButcher

BillTheButcher

Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2005
Posts
395
Hello. :)

I'm in the market for either a Radeon 6990 or a GTX 590. I've placed an order for one of each (from different suppliers) over the last couple of weeks but both cards went out of stock before the orders were complete.

I've done a lot of reading and I'm leaning towards the 590 mainly due to the reported noise levels of the 6990 but also because I've used nVidia cards for the last few years and I like what I know.

I've seen some good deals on the Gainward and the Point of View Charged.

I've never bought products from either of them before and don't know much about them. Are they decent manufacturers or to be avoided?

In the past I've bought graphics cards from Asus, Gigabyte and EVGA and the only thing I've ever had trouble with was an 8800 GTX from EVGA.

Thanks for reading and for any advice. :cool:
 
My mate had a GTX8800 Point of view, lasted him a around 3 years with no problems, gave up the ghost a couple of months back. Gainward are supposed to be a good make.
 
I wouldn't suggest getting either. As you said, the 6990 is very loud and hot, and the 590's power circuitry is rather unreliable, to the point that Nvidia are probably going to release a revision that doesn't blow up on you (lots of reports of the cards dying, both when overclocked and at stock. If you do get one, for the love of god don't overclock it) as well as being slightly slower than the 6990.

Don't get hung up over brand loyalty, all you need to look for is price/performance/overclockability, and both cards fall down at that point.

Could your system support two cards instead of one? 2gb 6950cf when overclocked/unlocked is just as fast and around £150 cheaper.
 
Yes I've been reading about the 590s going bang but is it as bad as some people are making out? I've read a lot from both sides about these issues, as well as the supposed forthcoming revisions from nVidia. I've also read that the cards are fine if you leave them at stock settings and that these revisions are a myth. It's difficult to know what the truth is. :confused:

Whichever card I get I won't be overclocking it and cost isn't really an issue so I think the manufacturer is important.

Yes my system could support SLI/Crossfire but I've tried both in the past and I prefer single card setups. I know you can get more bang for your buck with dual cards but I like a single card solution. :)
 
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The GTX590 were blowing up because people were overvolting them and OCP wasn't kicking in. However, Nvidia have rectified the problem by making sure the voltage cannot exceed the default to prevent any issues with new drivers. From a performance standpoint however, getting two cards will work out better and much cheaper, whether it be two GTX570s or two HD6950s. The GTX590s are ridiculously expensive for what they are. Due to the heavily reduced core clocks compared to those on the GTX580s, the GPU is technically slower than even the GTX570.

Manufacturer wise, I don't think there's anything wrong with Gainward or POV. The GTX590s are all reference designs and they won't really differ by brands. Some might be slightly pre-overclocked but what is important when choosing a manufacturer is their after sales support. Generally, you will deal with the etailor anyway so it's not a major issue.
 
BillTheButcher said:
Yes my system could support SLI/Crossfire but I've tried both in the past and I prefer single card setups. I know you can get more bang for your buck with dual cards but I like a single card solution. :)
Click to expand...

The GTX 590 and the HD 6990 may phsically be single cards but they operate with 2 GPU's in SLI or Crossfire.

Functionally it's no different than having 2 cards.
 
Thanks all - excellent info. :)

I've had bad experiences with both SLI (couldn't keep a couple of 7800s cool no matter what I tried) and Crossfire (very poor driver support) so my instinct is to keep away from SLI/Crossfire but TBH that was a long time ago and (lack of) availability of the 6990 and the 590 are making a dual card setup seem sensible.

At the moment I've got the following:
i7-2600k
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
8GB DDR3 1600 Corsair Vengeance RAM
OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD
2x 250GB WD Velociraptors
LG CH10LS20 BluRay-ROM

If I got a couple of GTX 580s in SLI would a 1000W OCZ ZX Series PSU be up to the job of driving this system?
 
After what was said above I've been looking at SLI 570/580 possibilities and I decided that I really do want a single card. I know it's illogical and more expensive but there you go: I'm an idiot. So I've just ordered the Gainward GTX 590. :D

Let's see if the order goes through before they run out of stock this time...
 
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hehe congrats mate, for all of it's foibles it is a very fast card! I wouldn't suggest putting any extra voltage through it though :)
 
Helios1234 said:
The GTX590 were blowing up because people were overvolting them and OCP wasn't kicking in.
Click to expand...

Strangely enough I haven't seen many cases of it in the wild, and while they aren't exactly a best seller quite a few have been sold to. I'm inclined to think most cases including the review ones were due to people thinking they knew better and disabling OCP with GPU-z - that said its still not good that they have that small a margin between normal functionality and catastrophic failure.
 
Stock cooling on the cpu and you have a £600 gcard? My hero :P

On topic though, post some benchies when/if you get chance as I'd like to see how that card performs. Got a gainward 580 myself and its pretty good but wondering what the speed difference actually is in a real world scenario.
 
Cleeecooo said:
Does the geforce logo light up on the card?

I want one.
Click to expand...
Yes it does. :)

James J said:
Stock cooling on the cpu and you have a £600 gcard? My hero :P
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LOL! As I've said elsewhere, it's a new build and I'm still bedding everything in before I start tweaking. Decent CPU cooler will be the next purchase. ;)

James J said:
On topic though, post some benchies when/if you get chance as I'd like to see how that card performs. Got a gainward 580 myself and its pretty good but wondering what the speed difference actually is in a real world scenario.
Click to expand...
Will do. :)

I only ran it for half an hour or so last night to test it and run the fans up: even at 100% fan speed with the side off the case it's a fair bit quieter than my old 295.
 
James J said:
On topic though, post some benchies when/if you get chance as I'd like to see how that card performs. Got a gainward 580 myself and its pretty good but wondering what the speed difference actually is in a real world scenario.
Click to expand...
Just the one so far... 3DMark Vantage: 32697.
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3300308

No OC (Turbo mode enabled on the CPU = 3.8GHz).

Overall Score
Mine: P32697
Expected: P29800

GPU Score
Mine: P35978
Expected: P31500

CPU Score
Mine: P25673
Expected: P25800

Only thing that's slightly low is the CPU score.
 
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