GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 590, which comes with GPU core speed of 607 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 855 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 512 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 590 should be 132% faster than the GeForce GTX 280 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 will be quite a bit (more or less 61%) more effective 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 should be quite a bit (more or less 202%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 280, and also will 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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.