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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 vs AMD Radeon RX 480

NVIDIA
VS
AMD
Performance
GeForce GTX 590
9,166.59% of 104,937
Radeon RX 48095% better
17,91917% of 104,937

The Radeon RX 480 has 95% better performance than the GeForce GTX 590 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 590
13.118% of 161.45
Radeon RX 480497% better
78.2548% of 161.45

The Radeon RX 480 has 497% better value for the money than the GeForce GTX 590 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

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Summary

#

About the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 GPU

The GeForce GTX 590 is an end-of-life desktop graphics card by NVIDIA. It launched in Q1 2011 with a suggested retail price of $699. Its GF110 chip that powers the GPU uses the Fermi 2.0 architecture and is fabricated on the 40 nm process.

This GPU is paired with 1,536 MB of GDDR5 VRAM. Its 854 MHz memory clock and 384 bit interface gives it a bandwidth of 164 Gb/s. This impacts how much data it can store, and how fast it transfers the data to and from memory.

The GTX 590 is a dual slot graphics card, taking up 2 PCIe slots. It supports DVI, mini-DisplayPort display ports. This desktop card has a TDP of 365 W. NVIDIA recommends using a power supply of at least 750 W with this card. A power supply lower than this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

The GeForce GTX 590 has the 185th highest 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 540 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 8.74% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 9,166.5 score and $699 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 13.11. This is the 91st best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

About the AMD Radeon RX 480 GPU

The Radeon RX 480 is a desktop graphics card by AMD. It launched in Q2 2016 with a suggested retail price of $229. Its Ellesmere chip that powers the GPU uses the GCN 4.0 architecture and is fabricated on the 14 nm process.

This GPU is paired with 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. Its 2,000 MHz memory clock and 256 bit interface gives it a bandwidth of 256 Gb/s. This impacts how much data it can store, and how fast it transfers the data to and from memory.

The RX 480 is a dual slot graphics card, taking up 2 PCIe slots. It supports HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4a display ports. This desktop card has a TDP of 150 W. AMD recommends using a power supply of at least 450 W with this card. A power supply lower than this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

The Radeon RX 480 has the 122nd highest 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 540 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 17.08% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 17,919 score and $229 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 78.25. This is the 38th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

General Info

General overview of the GPU, including details like its manufacturer, release date, launch price, and current production status.

InfoGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureFermi 2.0GCN 4.0
Market SegmentDesktopDesktop
Release DateQ1 2011Q2 2016
Launch Price (MSRP)$699$229
Production StatusEnd-of-lifeActive
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

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Select a game to compare FPS metrics

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Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
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Outriders
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FPS Benchmarks

This table showcases the average frame rate (FPS) achieved both GPUs in at various resolutions. Frame rate is a crucial indicator of how smoothly the GPU can run the game. A higher FPS generally translates to a smoother gameplay experience.

  • Frames Per Second
FPS data for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
GeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
Low - 1080p
--
--
Medium - 1080p
--
--
High - 1080p
--
--
Ultra - 1080p
--
29 FPS
QHD - 1440p
--
--
4K UHD - 2160p
--
--
FPS Source: Notebookcheck

Compare Frames Per Second (FPS)

The average frame rate (FPS) in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, higher FPS results in a smoother gameplay experience.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 590 orRadeon RX 480
GPUFrames Per Second
Arc A77083.2+192%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER47.5+67%
GeForce GTX 166043.1+51%
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER35.2+24%
Radeon RX 5500 XT34.5+21%
Radeon RX 48028.5
Radeon RX 6500 XT23.5-18%

Compare Cost Per Frame

The average cost per frame in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. Generally, a lower cost per frame implies better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 590 orRadeon RX 480
GPUCost Per Frame
Arc A7703.95-51%
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER4.52-44%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER4.82-40%
Radeon RX 5500 XT4.9-39%
GeForce GTX 16605.08-37%
Radeon RX 4808.04
Radeon RX 6500 XT8.47+5%

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 590
9,166.59% of 104,937
Radeon RX 48095% better
17,91917% of 104,937

The Radeon RX 480 has 95% better performance than the GeForce GTX 590 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 590 is ranked 185th with a score of 9,166.5, and the Radeon RX 480 is ranked 122nd with a score of 17,919.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 590
13.118% of 161.45
Radeon RX 480497% better
78.2548% of 161.45

The Radeon RX 480 has 497% better value for the money than the GeForce GTX 590 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 590 is ranked 91st with a performance per dollar of 13.11, and the Radeon RX 480 is ranked 38th with a performance per dollar of 78.25.

Relative Performance

The average score in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 590 or
GPUBenchmark Performance
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER18,218+99%
Radeon R9 390X17,944+96%
Radeon RX 48017,919+95%
Radeon RX 47017,624.5+92%
GeForce GTX 98017,604.5+92%
GeForce GTX 68010,216.5+11%
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti9,453+3%
GeForce GTX 5909,166.5
GeForce GTX 10508,571-6%
Radeon R7 3708,518.5-7%

Relative Value For Money

The average performance per dollar in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. A higher score implies a better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 590 or
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti82.05+526%
GeForce GTX 105078.63+500%
Radeon RX 48078.25+497%
GeForce RTX 206077.83+493%
Radeon RX Vega 5672.9+456%
Radeon HD 687017.65+35%
Radeon HD 797014.15+8%
GeForce GTX 59013.11
GeForce GTX 47012.44-5%
Radeon HD 645011.33-14%

Benchmark Scores

This table showcases the average performance scores achieved by both GPUs across industry-standard benchmark tests. These scores provide a valuable insight into overall performance. Powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

  • Popular
BenchmarkGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
--
3,882
3DMark Time Spy Score
--
4,001
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
--
72,213
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
--
12,186
3DMark 11 Performance Score
8,057.5
15,476
(+92.07%)
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
--
166
PassMark G3D Mark
3,341
8,623
(+158.1%)
PassMark G2D Mark
392
775
(+97.7%)
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
--
132
Unigine Heaven 3.0 OpenGL
--
105
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

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Graphics Processor

General information about the graphics processing unit like their architecture, manufacturing process size, and transistor count. Newer GPU architectures generally bring efficiency improvements and may introduce technologies that enhance graphical capabilities.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
CodenameGF110Ellesmere
ArchitectureFermi 2.0GCN 4.0
Process Size40 nm14 nm
Transistors3,000 million5,700 million

Memory Details

Memory specifications like their capacity, bandwidth, and clock speeds. GPU memory stores graphics data like frames, textures, and shadows which helps display rendered images. These specs are crucial for graphics-intense applications like gaming and 3D modeling.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
Memory Size1,536 MB8 GB
Memory TypeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth164 Gb/s256 Gb/s
Memory Clock854 MHz2,000 MHz
Memory Interface384 bit256 bit
L1 Cache64 KB16 KB
L2 Cache768 KB2 MB

Board Compatibility

Compatibility information like their slot size, bus interface, power consumption, and display support. These specs are useful for verifying compatibility with your motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
Slots2 slots2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)365 W150 W
Suggested PSU750 W450 W
Power Connectors2x 8-pin1x 6-pin
OutputsDVI, mini-DisplayPortHDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4a

Cores & Clock Speeds

Processing power information like its cores and clock speed. These specs impact how fast they can process graphics. Each type of core or component serves a specific computational purpose.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
Stream Processors (SP)--2,304
CUDA Cores512--
Compute Units (CU)--36
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)16--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)64144
Render Output Units (ROP)4832
Core Clock Speed607 MHz1,120 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)--1,266 MHz

Theoretical Performance

Theoretical performance numbers derived from the raw specifications of the different components like core count and clock speeds. While these provide a glimpse into peak processing power, they do not represent real-world performance.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
Pixel Fill Rate19.46 GPixel/s40.51 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate38.91 GTexel/s182.3 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance1,244 GFLOPS5.83 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance155.5 GFLOPS364.6 GFLOPS

API Support

Graphics API versions supported by these graphics cards. APIs evolve over time, introducing new features and functionalities. Older GPUs may not support recent versions.

SpecGeForce GTX 590Radeon RX 480
DirectX12 (11_0)12 (12_0)
OpenCL1.12.1
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model5.16.7

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* Performance rating, performance per dollar, and rankings are based on the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark and MSRP.