AMD Radeon HD 6990 4GB graphics card reviewed and rated

Unigine - tessellation

Hardware-based tessellation is a cornerstone of DirectX 11. The ability to efficiently generate massive geometry and then to apply what's known as a displacement map makes it a tasty technique for adding complexity and detail to a scene without a huge computational cost.

Unigine's Heaven 2.1 benchmark tests the ability of DX11 GPUs to provide varying levels of tessellation and extra in-benchmark detail.

Here's the standard benchmark run at 1,920x1,080 with 4x AA and 16x AF. Hover your mouse over the picture to see the difference between no tessellation and moderate tessellation.

We ran the DX11 cards through the benchmark/tessellation test at all four settings; disabled, moderate, normal and extreme.

The new Radeon 6900-series have substantially improved tessellation performance at all settings, particular at the lower levels. So it's no surprise to see two top-line GPUs bulldozer their way through this benchmark.