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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs AMD Radeon RX 590

Our index puts the AMD Radeon RX 590 roughly 18% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. This is an estimate for ranking, not a measured benchmark, and the gap varies considerably by title and by resolution.

SpecificationNVIDIA GeForce GTX 970AMD Radeon RX 590
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureMaxwellGCN 4 (Polaris)
Relative performance index6273 (better)
Video memory4 GB8 GB (better)
Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory bus256-bit256-bit
Release year20142018 (better)
Board power145 W (better)175 W
Suggested PSU500 W500 W
Hardware ray tracingNoNo
Upscaling supportNot recordedFSR 3
DirectX1212

Green marks the stronger figure for that row only — for power draw and PSU requirement, lower is treated as better. Performance indexes are CanMyPcPlay estimates; read how they are derived.

Which should you pick?

  • Check video memory, not just speed. A faster card with less VRAM can perform worse in recent titles at high texture settings.
  • Check power and clearance. Confirm your PSU and case can take the card — the build checker does this.
  • Upscaling support differs. DLSS is NVIDIA-only; FSR and XeSS run more broadly.