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AMD Radeon HD 6990M

AMD Radeon HD 6990M

The AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6990M (or sometimes called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6990) is a high-end graphics card for large laptops (17" and up). It is based on the desktop HD 6870 graphics card and there supports UVD3 decoding and Eyefinity+, albeit with overall reduced clock rates.

The 1120 Stream processors are still based on the "old" 5D architecture similar to the 5000 series. Therefore, the number of shaders is not comparable to the 1D cores of current Nvidia GPUs. The Tessellation performance should be improved (like the desktop 6800 series) with the new cards. The Stream processors can be used with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL. In particular, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL can both allow the cores to be used for general computations like video transcoding.

The 3D performance should be similar to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M in the high end class of notebook graphics cards. Therefore, as of 2011, most modern and demanding games should run in full HD with highest settings fluently. Only Metro 2033 and Crysis (DX11) may need reduced detail settings.

The new UVD3 video decoder supports the decoding of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos on the graphics card.

Furthermore, the HD 6900M series integrates an HD audio controller to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g. für Blu-Ray videos).

The AMD HD3D Technology offers support for Blu-Ray 3D and 3D displays (integrated and external). However, the solution is not as mature as Nvidia's 3D Vision.

Thanks to Eyefinity, the graphics chip is able to theoretically drive up to 6 monitors simultaneously. However, this only works if the laptop features enough DisplayPort outputs.

The high power consumption of the chip limits its use only in large laptops with good cooling solutions (e.g. Alienware M18x or Clevo X7200).

ManufacturerAMD
Radeon HD 6900M Series

Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire 2240@715MHz

Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire 1920@680MHz

Radeon HD 6990M 1120@715MHz

Radeon HD 6970M 960@680MHz

Radeon HD 6950M 960@580MHz

CodenameBlackcomb XTX
ArchitectureTerascale 2
Pipelines1120 - unified
Core Speed *715 MHz
Shader Speed *715 MHz
Memory Speed *900 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Transistors1700 Million
technology40 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement12.07.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 3529     avg: 3572.3 (34%)     max: 3653 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 3179     avg: 3238.3 (29%)     max: 3309 points
...
GeForce GTX 460 768MB -13%
Radeon HD 6790 -11%
Radeon HD 7770 -4%
Radeon HD 6990M
Radeon HD 5850 5%
GeForce GTX 560 Ti 24%
...
0%
100%
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 14349     avg: 15072 (41%)     max: 15754 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 13046     avg: 13341 (36%)     max: 13497 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 20744     avg: 21305.3 (72%)     max: 22090 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 26106     avg: 26942.7 (73%)     max: 28100 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 62353     avg: 64034.7 (43%)     max: 66916 Points
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 59748     avg: 59748 (98%)     max: 59748 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 36.6     avg: 41.9 (28%)     max: 51.8 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 19410     avg: 19743.5 (75%)     max: 20077 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 4.94     avg: 4.9 (7%)     max: 4.94 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 21.71     avg: 21.7 (37%)     max: 21.71 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 12.87     avg: 12.9 (16%)     max: 12.87 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 4     avg: 4 (4%)     max: 4 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 2.06     avg: 2.1 (12%)     max: 2.06 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 12.31     avg: 12.3 (19%)     max: 12.31 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 2.13     avg: 2.1 (4%)     max: 2.13 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 10.19     avg: 10.2 (16%)     max: 10.19 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 63.31     avg: 64.2 (73%)     max: 65.05 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 7359     avg: 8394.5 (77%)     max: 9430 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.6     avg: 7.7 (97%)     max: 7.7 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.6     avg: 7.7 (97%)     max: 7.7 points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

F1 2012
F1 2012 (2012)
ultra:
59  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Torchlight 2 (2012): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Max Payne 3
Max Payne 3 (2012)
low:
58.3  fps      Compare
med.:
65.1  fps      Compare
high:
38.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
29.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Dirt Showdown
low:
81.4  fps      Compare
med.:
62.7  fps      Compare
high:
60.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
35.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Diablo III
Diablo III (2012)
low:
210.2  fps      Compare
med.:
145  fps      Compare
high:
97.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
73  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen 2: Dark Waters
low:
98  fps      Compare
med.:
78.7  fps      Compare
high:
59.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
27.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Mass Effect 3
low:
60  fps      Compare
high:
59.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
56.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Alan Wake
Alan Wake (2012)
low:
92.7  fps      Compare
med.:
59.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
30.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011)
low:
75.5  fps      Compare
high:
52.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
46.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 2070
Anno 2070 (2011)
low:
220.2  fps      Compare
med.:
108  fps      Compare
high:
65.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
34.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
low:
56.1  fps      Compare
med.:
52.3  fps      Compare
high:
43.7  fps      Compare