Hasta La Gadget!

Here are five words you’ve heard before: “the world’s fastest notebook GPU.” Why, NVIDIA made just that claim two weeks ago, when it touted the GeForce GTX 580M as the nimblest card this side of Pluto. Not so fast, says AMD. The outfit just unveiled the Radeon HD 6990M with DirectX11 and HD3D support, and it insists this is the speediest GPU on the block — specifically, up to 25 percent faster than any other GPU that’s been announced to the public. And yes, AMD’s well aware of that 580M. Just like NVIDIA came out swinging, making pointed comparisons to the Radeon HD 6970M, AMD’s got some fighting words of its own: the company says the 6990M can whip the 580M in the benchmark AvP and games such as Batman Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2, BattleForge, Left 4 Dead, Metro2033, Wolfenstein MP, The Chronicles of Riddick, and ET: Quake Wars. We don’t need to remind you that these numbers merely represent the story each company wants to tell. Still, you get the idea: these are the top-of-the-line cards each has to offer at the moment, and they’ll likely be competing for space in your next gaming rig.

As you can imagine, the 6990M joins other Radeon HD cards in supporting the company’s Eyefinity technology, as well as GPU app acceleration. Let it be known, too, that while the 6990M supplants the popular 6970M as far as performance claims go, AMD tells us the 6970M will still be available for the foreseeable future. Speaking of availability, the 6990M will be offered in the Alienware M18x — right alongside NVIDIA’s 580M. Additionally, you’ll find it packed inside Clevo’s P170HM and P150HM. And you didn’t think we forgot about specs, did you? Head on past the break to find the full PR, along with a handful of technical details straight from the horse’s mouth.