ATI Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition vs GeForce GTX 590

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking493not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.74no data
Power efficiency1.64no data
ArchitectureFermi 2.0 (2010−2014)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameGF110RV770
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date24 March 2011 (13 years ago)6 January 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$699 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores1024800
Core clock speed607 MHz750 MHz
Number of transistors3,000 million956 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)365 Watt150 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature97 °Cno data
Texture fill rate38.9130.00
Floating-point processing power1.244 TFLOPS1.2 TFLOPS
ROPs4816
TMUs6440

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 support16x PCI-E 2.0no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length279 mm250 mm
Height4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 8-pin2x 6-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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU)512 MB
Memory bus width768-bit (384-bit per GPU)256 Bit
Memory clock speed1707 MHz850 MHz
Memory bandwidth327.7 GB/s108.8 GB/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 ConnectorsThree Dual Link DVI-IMini DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
Multi monitor support+no data
HDMI+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model5.14.1
OpenGL4.23.3
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 24 March 2011 6 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount 3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU) 512 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 365 Watt 150 Watt

GTX 590 has an age advantage of 2 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 37.5% more advanced lithography process.

ATI HD 4870 Mac Edition, on the other hand, has 143.3% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590
GeForce GTX 590
ATI Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition
Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition

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Community ratings

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