So what are those disadvantages that we mentioned above? Well Hard OCP believes that not only is the price a little high when compared to the Radeon HD 6990, but also that it lacks in performance, which could be down to the lack of RAM. This means you are getting less for almost the same amount of money – which will not go down well when you consider that you are spending around $700.

The sad thing is, the GTX 590 is almost on par with the GTX 570, which is an older card – not something that will make you rush out and buy one is it? Also you have to remember that the latter works out at around $100 less when purchase from Newegg and its MIR system.

NVIDIA has been working on this card for two years, so would would have assumed that in that time they would have been able to offer just a little more RAM or maybe a slight adjustment on its price. Having said that, the GTX 590 is still a more than capable card, one that should do quite well in the high-end GPU market. Is the ASUS GTX 590 worth the price?

Vlad Savov from Engadget has been taking a little look at the new hardware and found that a number of respectable websites have offered their take on the new card. Looking at the review roundup we can see that AMD has managed to perform a fine balancing act between the price tag and performance; with Savov pointing out that both new cards are able to punch above their weight and take on the GTX 580 (read our review roundup). If you want something a little cheaper then you can get more details on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 here.

The HardOCP review believes that these new cards have struck a blow to NVIDIA, and says that if you were ever in the market for a new graphics card, then now is the time to do so with the 6950 and the 6970. PC Perspective seems to have a difference of opinion, saying that these new cards will not be able to replace the GTX range; however, the reviewer did say that he would still go with the AMD.

HotHardWare was the first review to say that the Radeon HD 6970 was priced a little high; although it does offer more in the way of configuration settings. So we have three different review aspects, but there are a total of nine reviews for both the AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950. We ask that you read all 9 and form your own opinion; let us hope that you will be able to get one before the end of the holiday season – but do not hold your breath.

However, reading all those specs is all well and good, but it is the benchmark test that will appeal to the gamer more. Engadget has been looking at some of the best reviews available, so thought that they would offer a review round-up.

A brief look over the reviews shows that they all have one thing in common, and that is how much of a performance increase it has over the NVIDIA GTX 480. However, one thing they cannot agree on is how much increase it is, they range from 10 to 30 percent.

One would presume that these performance figures differ depending on what game you are playing. Choose which review you would rather read: HardOCP, Tech Report, Legit Reviews, Bit-tech, PC Perspective and finally Hot Hardware.