GeForce GTX 590 vs 780

Place in performance ranking	246	460
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	16.81	0.47
Architecture	Kepler (2012−2018)	Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code name	GK110	GF110
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	23 May 2013 (11 years ago)	24 March 2011 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$649	$699
Current price	$100 (0.2x MSRP)	$600 (0.9x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 780 has 3477% better value for money than GTX 590.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2304	1024
CUDA cores	2304	1024
Core clock speed	863 MHz	607 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	7,080 million	3,000 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	365 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	95 °C	97 °C
Texture fill rate	160.5 billion/sec	77.7 billion/sec
Floating-point performance	4,156 gflops	2x 1,244.2 gflops

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	PCI Express 3.0	16x PCI-E 2.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	10.5" (26.7 cm)	11" (280 mm) (27.9 cm)
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Minimum recommended system power	600 Watt	no data
Supplementary power connectors	One 8-pin and one 6-pin	Two 8-pin
SLI options	no data	+

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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU)
Memory bus width	384 Bit	768-bit (384-bit per GPU)
Memory clock speed	6008 MHz	1707 MHz
Memory bandwidth	288.4 GB/s	327.7 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

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	One Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPort	Three Dual Link DVI-IMini DisplayPort
Multi monitor support	4 displays	+
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	+	no data
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	Internal

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Blu Ray 3D	+	no data
3D Gaming	+	no data
3D Vision	+	no data
PhysX	+	no data
3D Vision Live	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.3	4.2
OpenCL	1.2	1.1
Vulkan	1.1.126	N/A
CUDA	+	+

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 780 20.70
+140%

GTX 590 8.63

780 outperforms 590 by 140% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 780 8010
+140%

GTX 590 3341

780 outperforms 590 by 140% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 780 10460
+56.6%

GTX 590 6680

780 outperforms 590 by 57% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

GTX 780 23339
+82.2%

GTX 590 12811

780 outperforms 590 by 82% in GeekBench 5 OpenCL.