GeForce GTX 470 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 590, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 855 MHz on this specific card. It features 512 SPUs along with 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 470		2937 points
	Difference: 3743 (127%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 150 Watts (70%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 590 should be much faster than the GeForce GTX 470 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
	Difference: 194400 (145%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is much (approximately 129%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43704 (129%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is quite a bit (about 140%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 470, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 33992 (140%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.