Got around £1000 to send on GPU power

[bemaniac]

I find the SLI 480s struggle to maintain 60fps @ 1920 on shift 2 but never drop below 54fps. Definitely I think 2x1.5gb gtx580s will be the maximum needed for this res right now. 3GB if you get a higher res monitor.

 

[RedvGreen]

This just doesn't make sense, you're annoyed with the noise your 295 makes and yet you're considering the even noisier 6990

Do you own the HD6990?

That would at least provide an element of truth to your assertion. Unfortunately very few people bought the 6990 out of fear of the noise. I was prepared to watercool mine to keep my system noise down to 25dB like my HAF-X case fans. I haven't needed to think about watercooling yet as the card is realistically more silent than any SLI or XF rigs I have used/built in the past few years. If you stick it on Furmark for 1hr, it will get loud, but so would any card...

 

[JasonKnights]

I thought the 6990 was loud that's why I never thought about buying one, it's only due to a reply I got saying the 6990 was silent in games that made me consider one! I've always been nvidia. The gtx580 is around 20db quieter than my current 295

 

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

Your choices have been covered, but just to re-iterate if you want somthing that lasts 2 yrs for your £1000 then spend 400-500 now and the same again in 1.5 yrs time or so.

Nice position to be in btw

 

[sand_dune]

This summer AMD is expected to release new GPU's that will laugh at any current GPU's.
As for now, to stay on top of current games you need a dual GPU set-up, because single 580 is not powerful enough for some games. For example you don't wanna be playing Metro 2033 at 20-25FPS(also think about future games). 6990 is far superior to 580 and 590, especially considering the price. It also beats 590 when both are overclocked. Nvidia has failed with Physics which is losing it's relevance.

Another way to go would be 2x580, but as I said, new generation cards will pee on these, and it's really not worth to invest in 2x580 atm.

I advice you to go for 6990 and sell it shortly before new cards from amd reach the shops. You won't lose money then and have a powerful dual gpu set-up.

With new generation cards you'll be safe for another 2 years, as graphics technology is not going to change significantly.

 

[schnipps]

Maybe said but 55" at 1920x1080 is the first thing i would sort out, get a higher res screen then look at gpu 1920 isnt a particularly hi resolution but if i HAD to stick to that i would go 1 6990 i wouldnt bother with dual cards i have done xfire and i have had more bother then ever when i had 1 card.

 

[Predicament]

Maybe said but 55" at 1920x1080 is the first thing i would sort out, get a higher res screen then look at gpu 1920 isnt a particularly hi resolution but if i HAD to stick to that i would go 1 6990 i wouldnt bother with dual cards i have done xfire and i have had more bother then ever when i had 1 card.

For the record, the 6990 is esentially an crossfired card. The bonus though is that one does not have to worry about compatibility/driver issues.

 

[coupe69]

Do you own the HD6990?

That would at least provide an element of truth to your assertion. Unfortunately very few people bought the 6990 out of fear of the noise....

No I don't own one, but you're expecting people to believe you over the plethora of reviews which say exactly the opposite? I'm sorry that doesn't compute

When idle (and at its default speeds) the card is reasonably quiet, but try to give it any work and it quickly moves into hairdryer territory.
If you’re willing to live with the noise, the monster price tag and the card’s reliance on driver updates to make it support the latest games, you simply can’t get anywhere near this level of performance from any other single graphics card

From here

We experienced more than one thermal shutdown during the testing, and the card didn't even start to be cool until the fan was at 60% or more, by which point our ears were bleeding with 40% further to go.

Frome here

The HD 6990 isn’t overly noisy when idle, but it’s one seriously loud card when the games get going. The single fan ramped up to levels of noise we thought we’d left behind when the GTX 480 was retired.

From here

Cons
Can get loud

From here

Meanwhile, the fan itself does make this card noisier than many single card setups but at subjectively equal acoustic levels to most high end dual card configurations. In our experience, the HD 6990’s fan noise is no louder than two HD 6970 cards in Crossfire but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near quiet either.

From here

Very noisy

From here

The one downside to this massive card was the noise from the cooling fan. It's certainly not what you'd consider a quiet cooling solution by any means.

From here

Unfortunately, as soon as we launched our game mode, the noise output by Radeon HD 6990 cooling solution increased to an uncomfortable 50.2 dBA.

From here



Do I need to continue? There's plenty more reviews which say exactly the same.