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GeForce GTX 590 vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 590 makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 855 MHz on this particular model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this particular model. It features 1408 SPUs along with 88 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 200 Watts
GeForce GTX 590 365 Watts
Difference: 165 Watts (83%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 590 should be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590 328320 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 160000 MB/sec
Difference: 168320 (105%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is a little bit (approximately 10%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 6950 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590 77696 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 70400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 7296 (10%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 590 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590 58272 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 32672 (128%)

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

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GeForce GTX 590

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce GTX 590 Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year March 2011 December 2010
Code Name GF110 Cayman Pro
Memory 1536 MB (x2) 2048 MB
Core Speed 607 MHz (x2) 800 MHz
Memory Speed 3420 MHz (x2) 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 365 watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 328320 MB/sec 160000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 77696 Mtexels/sec 70400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 58272 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 512 (x2) 1408
Texture Mapping Units 64 (x2) 88
Render Output Units 48 (x2) 32
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 384-bit (x2) 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 40 nm
Transistors 3000 million 2640 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.1 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 590

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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