GeForce GTX 590 vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960, which has a core clock speed of 1127 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, 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 960		7627 points
GeForce GTX 590		6680 points
	Difference: 947 (14%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 245 Watts (204%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 590 should in theory be much better than the GeForce GTX 960 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 216320 (193%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be a little bit (approximately 8%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5568 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be much (approximately 62%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 960, and capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22208 (62%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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