GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 590, which has core clock speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 855 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 129 Watts (55%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 590 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 280 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 186624 (132%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 will be much (approximately 61%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29536 (61%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is a lot (approximately 202%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 280, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 39008 (202%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.