GeForce GTX 590

In fact, the GeForce GTX 590 is an evolutionary product, because in its production NVIDIA did not use any new technologies and did not resort to changing the architecture of the GF110 GPU, however, AMD has a similar situation with their Radeon HD 6990. Architecturally, the GF110 chips used in the GeForce GTX 590 are not very different from the GF100 on which the first model of the Fermi line, the GTX 480, is based. Both GPUs use the same multiprocessor configuration, these chips consist of four Graphics Processing Clusters.

The GeForce GTX 590 accelerator will generally show performance close to the accelerated version of the Radeon HD 6990, slightly outperforming AMD's flagship product in games that actively use complex tessellation modes and lagging behind in those applications that have always been AMD's strength. Each of the two GF110s contains four GPC clusters, sixteen SM multiprocessors and six 64-bit memory controllers connected to the second level cache and having 8 ROPs each. In total, each chip includes 512 stream processors, assembled into 16 multiprocessors, 32 pieces each. And in the released dual-chip model GTX 590, their number is not artificially underestimated, all multiprocessors are active.

Each multiprocessor in the GF110 has 64 KB of on-chip memory, which can be configured in two different ways: 48 KB of shared memory and 16 KB of L1 cache, or vice versa - 16 KB of shared memory and 48 KB of cache. In addition, the GF110 has 768 KB of unified L2 cache, which handles all data load and save requests, as well as texture fetches.

This model contains two GF110 GPUs, which are manufactured using the 40nm process technology based on the Fermi architecture. The device also carries on board 1024 stream processors, 128 texture units, 96 raster operations units and 3 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 2x384-bit access bus. The operating frequencies of the video chip/shader domain/memory are set to 607/1214/3414 MHz, respectively. To remove heat from the components of the GeForce GTX 590 graphics card, a dual-slot cooler with a fan located in the center is used. At the same time, the cooler for each GPU uses its own evaporation chamber. The novelty has a maximum power consumption of 365 watts.

When installed in a PC, the GeForce GTX 590 accelerator occupies two expansion slots, which is currently the standard. The length of the board itself is not much longer than the length of the reference sample GeForce GTX 580 and is 28 cm. The design of the cooling system of the GTX 590 is made in the color scheme typical of all modern NVIDIA products: a black casing with branded gray-green inserts covering the entire printed circuit board. On the reverse side of the PCB there are overlays that create rigidity and at the same time dissipate heat from the memory chips.

For normal operation, the GeForce GTX 590 requires two 8-pin PCI-Ex connectors. By the way, the manufacturer recommends the use of 700-watt power supplies for stable operation of the system with the GTX 590 accelerator. At the moment, this video card is one of the fastest graphics solutions on the market, showing performance approximately equal to the Radeon HD 6990.