Nvidia has introduced its competitor to the AMD Radeon HD 6990, GeForce GTX 590, which it refers to as the “fastest dual graphics card available today” and the world’s quietest graphics processing unit (GPU).

 

It is powered by dual Nvidia Fermi-class GPUs bolted onto a single card, resulting in a combined 1024 Nvidia CUDA architecture cores and 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, packed onto a single 11" dual slot monster.

 

The GTX 590 delivers 32 tessellation engines that enable the latest DirectX 11 games (such as Crysis 2, video posted below) to run at resolutions of 2560 x 1600 or higher. This GPU boasts four separate video outputs, allowing gamers to power four independent displays or span the gaming action across three 3D displays, at a resolution up to 5760 x 1080 via Nvidia 3D Vision Surround technology for example.

 

This GPU also sports a special cooling system and dual vapor chambers, with Nvidia claiming that this results in the boosting of its performance as well as acoustics. Its new top-of-the-line GPU measures in at 48 dB on the decibel scale, which the company states is over two times quieter than its closest competitive product under full graphics load.

  

“The GTX 590 is the best dual GPU product ever built,” said Drew Henry, general manager of GeForce GPU business at Nvidia.

 

“With leading performance, support for multi-monitor 3D gaming, Quad SLI, and an acoustic envelope that begs to be heard for how quiet it is, the GTX 590 epitomizes what a perfect dual graphics card looks, performs, and sounds like.”

 

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 590 is available in the US for an estimated selling price starting at $699 (approx. R4825) from the company’s partners such as Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, Inno3D, MSI and Palit. No local release info is available as of yet.