GeForce GTX 590 vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 680, which has GPU core speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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 680		7650 points
GeForce GTX 590		6680 points
	Difference: 970 (15%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 170 Watts (87%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 590 will be 71% quicker than the Geforce GTX 680 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
	Difference: 136064 (71%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be quite a bit (more or less 66%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 590. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 51072 (66%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 590 is superior to the Geforce GTX 680, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26080 (81%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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