GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all of 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 uses a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 590 should theoretically perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 295 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
	Difference: 104544 (47%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 should be a bit (about 19%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 590. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14464 (19%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is much (approximately 81%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 295, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26016 (81%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling 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 the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.