GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 590, which features a core clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 855 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 512 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 259 Watts (244%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 590 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 270592 (469%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 will be quite a bit (more or less 210%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 52640 (210%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be much (about 365%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 45744 (365%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.