GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 590, which has GPU core speed of 607 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 855 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 512 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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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

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 590 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 280 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is much (approximately 61%) faster with regards to AF 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 will be quite a bit (about 202%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past 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, it must be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.