GeForce GTX 580 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 590, which uses 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 card. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

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 590		6680 points
GeForce GTX 580		4956 points
	Difference: 1724 (35%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 121 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 590 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GTX 580 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 135936 (71%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be quite a bit (more or less 57%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28288 (57%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is a lot (about 57%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 580, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21216 (57%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.