GeForce GTX 470 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 590, which has a clock frequency of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 855 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation 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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 590 will be 145% faster than the GeForce GTX 470 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is much (more or less 129%) better at anisotropic filtering 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%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 470, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (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 moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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 higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant 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 get to the max fill rate.