Nvidia is supposedly releasing a dual-GPU card next month to rival AMD's similar offering.


Called the GeForce GTX 590, the card is expected to arrive in the same time frame as AMD's similar offering, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 "Antilles"also set for a supposed February release. Nvidia is also expected to launch the new card in the same manner as it did with the GeForce GTX 580: surprisingly sudden, catching AMD off-guard.
Based on a 40-nm fabrication process, the currently unannounced GTX 590 will reportedly come packed with two GF110 GPUs with 512 CUDA cores each, totaling 1024 CUDA cores. The card will also feature a 2 x 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory and support for DirectX 11.
Nordic Hardware speculates that Nvidia chose to max the CUDA count instead of turning off shader blocks and increasing GPU frequencies, offering a more efficient solution. The dual-GPU card will thus have lower clock frequencies and voltages than the new GeForce GTX 580 with a 244-watt TDP using just one GF110 GPU. For now, it's unknown just how much power the dual-GPU card will actually consume when it hits the market, but expect a lot.
Unnamed sources have also confirmed that the reference design is set. The end product will likely sport a full-cover cooler with a large 90-mm radial fan mounted in the center. The size will be close to what the GeForce GTX 295 (Gen. 2) offers, but may be a bit longer.
With February just a day away, we're looking at a very exciting month. Stay tuned as the week progresses.