GeForce GTX 560 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 590, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 855 MHz on this particular model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 590		6680 points
GeForce GTX 560		3030 points
	Difference: 3650 (120%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 215 Watts (143%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 590 should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce GTX 560 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
	Difference: 200192 (156%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be a lot (approximately 71%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 560. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32336 (71%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 590 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 32352 (125%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.