HIS HD6990 Dual CrossfireX Review

It wouldn't be an HIS box without the image of a sword on the front. The artwork is rather dull if we are being honest.

The bundle, as we mentioned earlier today, contains a tri of cables to help the owner connect the card to various panel configurations. A miniDP to SL-DVI passive, a miniDP to SL-DVI active, and a miniDP to HDMI passive cable are included.

The HIS card is a reference design, with HIS branding on the front. The same small red fan takes centerstage across the PCB.

As this is a retail sample, there is a yellow sticker covering the bios switch. . The AMD HD6990 will ship in the default position of ’2′. This is a factory supported clock setting (830mhz) with voltage set to 1.12. Position ’1′ is a ‘hardware’ overdrive option with increased clocks, 880mhz on the core and an increased voltage setting of 1.175. They are naming this the ‘AUSUM’ or ‘Antilles Unlocking Switch for Uber Mode’, which we don’t expect to become a widely used acronym.

The card is crossfire capable and requires two 8 pin power connectors to operate correctly.

AMD are using 4GB of quality Hynix H5GQ2H24MFR memory rated to 6ghz.

AMD advised reviewers to avoid disassembling the card until the testing was completed. They are using a ‘phase change TIM' which, apparently, offers 8% better thermal performance. When the connection is broken between GPU core and cooler, the TIM has to be removed.

AMD are using the latest generation digital programmable Volterra regulators on the card, to deliver increased efficiency with higher current capacity. The regulators are located at the centre of the board, in a symmetrical layout, to provide efficient power delivery to each GPU and its associated memory. Premium ASICs are screened for high speed and low leakage properties.

Above, GPUz highlights the two different BIOS settings available from the switch on the PCB. AMD class this as ‘HD6990 OC' mode.

Connectivity is covered by 4x miniDP connectors (DP 1.2), and a single DL-DVI port.

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