GeForce GTX 590 vs Radeon HD 7970

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 7970. Here you can take a closer look at graphics cards specs, such as core clock speed, memory type and size, display connectors, etc. The price, overall benchmark and gaming performances are usually defining factors when it comes to choosing between GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 7970. Make sure that the graphics card has compatible dimensions and will properly fit in your new or current computer case. Also these graphics cards may have different system power recommendations, so take that into consideration and upgrade your PSU if necessary.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Radeon HD 7970
Power consumption (TDP) 365 Watt 300 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors Two 8-pin 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU) 3 GB
Display Connectors 3x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • GeForce GTX 590 has 21% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7970 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 590 has 3069 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 7970 - with GCN.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is 263 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 590.
  • Memory clock speed of GeForce GTX 590 is 332 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 35−40
ultra / 1080p 10−11 21−24
QHD / 1440p 4−5 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 35−40 60−65
medium / 1080p 21−24 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 100% more, than GeForce GTX 590.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Radeon HD 7970
Architecture Fermi GCN
Code name GF110 Tahiti XT
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 24 March 2011 22 December 2011
Pipelines 1024 2048
Core clock speed 1215 MHz
Boost Clock 925 MHz
Transistor count 3,000 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 77.7 billion/sec 118.4
Floating-point performance 2x 1,244.2 gflops 3,789 gflops
Length 11" (280 mm) (27.9 cm) 274 mm
Memory bus width 768-bit (384-bit per GPU) 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1707 MHz 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 327.7 GB/s 264 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.2 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 1024
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0 PCIe 2.1 x16
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI + +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 107 Mh/s 485 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
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