GeForce RTX 4090 vs GTX 590

Place in the ranking	498	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.78	18.83
Power efficiency	1.64	15.33
Architecture	Fermi 2.0 (2010−2014)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	GF110	AD102
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	24 March 2011 (13 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$699	$1,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 4090 has 2314% better value for money than GTX 590.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1024	16384
Core clock speed	607 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	3,000 million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	365 Watt	450 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	97 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	38.91	1,290
Floating-point processing power	1.244 TFLOPS	82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs	48	176
TMUs	64	512
Tensor Cores	no data	512
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	128

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	16x PCI-E 2.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	279 mm	304 mm
Height	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 8-pin	1x 16-pin
SLI options	+	-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU)	24 GB
Memory bus width	768-bit (384-bit per GPU)	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1707 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	327.7 GB/s	1.01 TB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	Three Dual Link DVI-IMini DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Multi monitor support	+	no data
HDMI	+	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.8
OpenGL	4.2	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	+	8.9

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 590 8.69

RTX 4090 100.00
+1051%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 590 3341

RTX 4090 38434
+1050%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 590 9167

RTX 4090 104598
+1041%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 590 25720

RTX 4090 137609
+435%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 590 6680

RTX 4090 73447
+1000%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	47 −964%	500−550 +964%
Full HD	108 −139%	258 +139%
1200p	112 −1016%	1250−1300 +1016%
1440p	16−18 −1138%	198 +1138%
4K	12−14 −1083%	142 +1083%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	6.47 −4.4%	6.20 +4.4%
1440p	43.69 −441%	8.08 +441%
4K	58.25 −417%	11.26 +417%

GTX 590 and RTX 4090 have nearly equal cost per frame in 1080p
RTX 4090 has 441% lower cost per frame in 1440p
RTX 4090 has 417% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	14−16 −1313%	212 +1313%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −1224%	225 +1224%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	27−30 −318%	110−120 +318%
Counter-Strike 2	14−16 −1333%	215 +1333%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −553%	111 +553%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 −1486%	555 +1486%
Forza Horizon 5	21−24 −1371%	309 +1371%
Metro Exodus	21−24 −674%	178 +674%
Red Dead Redemption 2	24−27 −550%	150−160 +550%
Valorant	30−35 −2481%	826 +2481%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	27−30 −318%	110−120 +318%
Counter-Strike 2	14−16 −1227%	199 +1227%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −529%	107 +529%
Dota 2	30−35 −545%	200 +545%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −303%	149 +303%
Fortnite	50−55 −504%	300−350 +504%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 −1466%	548 +1466%
Forza Horizon 5	21−24 −1467%	329 +1467%
Grand Theft Auto V	30−35 −461%	174 +461%
Metro Exodus	21−24 −696%	183 +696%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	65−70 −216%	210−220 +216%
Red Dead Redemption 2	24−27 −550%	150−160 +550%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 −569%	170−180 +569%
Valorant	30−35 −2319%	750−800 +2319%
World of Tanks	120−130 −116%	270−280 +116%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	27−30 −318%	110−120 +318%
Counter-Strike 2	14−16 −1133%	185 +1133%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −518%	105 +518%
Dota 2	30−35 −623%	224 +623%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −478%	210−220 +478%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 −1454%	544 +1454%
Forza Horizon 5	21−24 −1229%	279 +1229%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	65−70 −216%	210−220 +216%
Valorant	30−35 −2025%	680 +2025%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	10−12 −1373%	162 +1373%
Grand Theft Auto V	10−12 −1364%	161 +1364%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	40−45 −317%	170−180 +317%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 −1229%	90−95 +1229%
World of Tanks	60−65 −719%	500−550 +719%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −444%	85−90 +444%
Counter-Strike 2	30−35 −390%	152 +390%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1000%	77 +1000%
Far Cry 5	18−20 −789%	160−170 +789%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −2568%	507 +2568%
Forza Horizon 5	12−14 −1738%	239 +1738%
Metro Exodus	14−16 −913%	152 +913%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −2083%	262 +2083%
Valorant	21−24 −2500%	572 +2500%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	3−4 −5433%	166 +5433%
Dota 2	18−20 −884%	187 +884%
Grand Theft Auto V	18−20 −884%	187 +884%
Metro Exodus	4−5 −3325%	137 +3325%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	24−27 −736%	200−210 +736%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −967%	60−65 +967%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −884%	187 +884%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	7−8 −1200%	90−95 +1200%
Counter-Strike 2	3−4 −4900%	150−160 +4900%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −1233%	40 +1233%
Dota 2	18−20 −1095%	227 +1095%
Far Cry 5	10−11 −950%	100−110 +950%
Fortnite	9−10 −967%	95−100 +967%
Forza Horizon 4	10−12 −2482%	284 +2482%
Forza Horizon 5	6−7 −2583%	161 +2583%
Valorant	8−9 −4450%	364 +4450%

This is how GTX 590 and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 964% faster in 900p
RTX 4090 is 139% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 1016% faster in 1200p
RTX 4090 is 1138% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 1083% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 4090 is 5433% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RTX 4090 surpassed GTX 590 in all 64 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	8.69	100.00
Recency	24 March 2011	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU)	24 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	365 Watt	450 Watt

GTX 590 has 23.3% lower power consumption.

RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 1050.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 590 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.