AMD Radeon RX 590 GME vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between these two cards. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 scores 5077 points against 1001 points for the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, a delta of 407.2%. That is not a close contest; it is a generational chasm. The RTX 5070 delivers more than five times the raw DX12 throughput, which aligns with its position as a current-generation part versus an end-of-life design.

Moving to compute workloads, the Geekbench OpenCL results reinforce the same story. The RTX 5070 posts 172660 points, while the RX 590 GME manages 36294 points, a 375.7% advantage. This gap matters for anyone running GPGPU tasks, video encoding, or physics simulations. The RX 590 GME's GCN architecture, while once capable, simply cannot keep pace with the Blackwell 2.0 design in raw compute throughput.

The Vulkan results are slightly closer but still lopsided. The RTX 5070 scores 178923 points versus 60508 points for the RX 590 GME, a 195.7% lead. Vulkan tends to favor AMD's older architecture more than DX12, yet the margin remains enormous. Across all three head-to-head benchmarks, the RTX 5070 wins every test, giving it a clean 3-0 sweep.

The average benchmark scores in the database tell a broader story. The RTX 5070 holds an average score of 40377 across its test suite, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. The RX 590 GME averages 32601, which sits in the 77th percentile. Both cards are above average, but the percentile gap understates the real-world difference because the RX 590 GME's nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at 32540 (0.2% behind) and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE at 32456 (0.4% behind). The RTX 5070's nearest rivals are clustered much closer to its own score: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 40318 (0.1% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 40063 (0.8% behind), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870 (1.2% ahead). In other words, the RTX 5070 competes in a much higher performance tier, while the RX 590 GME sits among professional workstation cards from an older era.

One important caveat from the data: the RX 590 GME was only tested in three benchmarks in this database, while the RTX 5070 was tested in ten. That means the average scores are not directly comparable in scope. Still, the three overlapping tests all show the same direction and magnitude of difference, so the conclusion is robust.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the faster card by every recorded metric, with leads ranging from 195.7% to 407.2% across the shared benchmarks. Anyone building a system for modern gaming, ray tracing, or compute-heavy workloads should choose the RTX 5070 without hesitation. Its 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it well above the RX 590 GME's 77th percentile, and its nearest rivals are all professional cards with similar average scores.

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, by contrast, is an end-of-life product. Its production status is listed as "End-of-life," and its architecture, GCN 4.0, dates back to the Polaris generation. For a builder on a legacy system with a PCIe 3.0 slot and a 450 W power supply, the RX 590 GME might still function as a drop-in upgrade, but the benchmark data shows it is not competitive with current-generation hardware. The RTX 5070 requires a PCIe 5.0 slot, a 600 W power supply, and a 16-pin power connector, which rules out many older systems without additional upgrades.

There is no scenario in the recorded data where the RX 590 GME wins. The RTX 5070 wins all three head-to-head tests, has a higher average benchmark score, and occupies a higher performance percentile. If the choice is between these two specific cards, the RTX 5070 is the only rational pick for performance. The RX 590 GME only makes sense if the system cannot physically accommodate the RTX 5070's power and interface requirements, and even then, the performance gap is so large that upgrading the platform would be the better long-term move.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5070 in DX12 gaming workloads?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX 5070 scores 5077 points versus 1001 points for the RX 590 GME, a 407.2% advantage. This is the largest margin recorded between the two cards.

Q: Does the RX 590 GME win any benchmark?

A: No. Across the three shared benchmarks (3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan), the RTX 5070 wins all three. The RX 590 GME records zero wins.

Q: How do the two cards compare in compute performance?

A: The RTX 5070 scores 172660 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 375.7% higher than the RX 590 GME's 36294. The gap is slightly smaller in Vulkan compute, where the RTX 5070 leads by 195.7% (178923 versus 60508).

Q: What percentile ranking does each card hold?

A: The RTX 5070 is in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 590 GME is in the 77th percentile. Both are above the median, but the RTX 5070 sits in a higher performance tier.

Q: Are there any benchmarks where the RX 590 GME is competitive?

A: The closest result is the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 5070 leads by 195.7%. Even in that best-case scenario for AMD, the RTX 5070 nearly triples the RX 590 GME's score.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference?

A: The RTX 5070 averages 40377 points across its ten recorded benchmarks. The RX 590 GME averages 32601 points across its three recorded benchmarks. The RTX 5070's average is 7776 points higher, though the test counts differ.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ substantially in nearly every specification category. The RTX 5070 uses 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 590 GME uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 5070 achieves more than 2.6 times the memory bandwidth due to the much faster GDDR7 memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) versus 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) on the RX 590 GME.

The core configurations are equally divergent. The RTX 5070 has 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The RX 590 GME has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 5070 also adds 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, neither of which exist on the RX 590 GME.

Clock speeds favor NVIDIA as well. The RTX 5070 runs at a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, while the RX 590 GME is at 1257 MHz base and 1420 MHz boost. Pixel and texture rates follow: the RTX 5070 achieves 201.0 GPixel/s and 482.3 GTexel/s, versus 45.44 GPixel/s and 204.5 GTexel/s for the RX 590 GME. FP32 compute is 30.87 TFLOPS on the RTX 5070 versus 6.543 TFLOPS on the RX 590 GME.

Power and connectivity also differ. The RTX 5070 has a TDP of 250 W, requires a 600 W power supply, and uses a single 16-pin connector. The RX 590 GME has a TDP of 175 W, requires a 450 W power supply, and uses a single 8-pin connector. The RTX 5070 uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the RX 590 GME uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs differ as well: the RTX 5070 offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b, while the RX 590 GME offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX 5070 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 590 GME supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is as wide as the performance gap. The RTX 5070 uses the GB205 chip built on NVIDIA's Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 31,100 million transistors into a 263 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 118.3 million transistors per square millimeter. The RX 590 GME uses the Polaris 20 chip on AMD's GCN 4.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, with a density of 24.6 million transistors per square millimeter.

The transistor count difference is stark: the RTX 5070 has roughly 5.5 times as many transistors as the RX 590 GME, packed into a die that is only 31 mm² larger. This is a direct result of the process node advantage (5 nm versus 14 nm) and the architectural differences between Blackwell 2.0 and GCN 4.0.

Feature-wise, the RTX 5070 includes dedicated ray tracing cores (48 of them) and tensor cores (192 of them), enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads. The RX 590 GME has neither, with no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores listed. The RTX 5070's FP16 performance is identical to its FP32 at 30.87 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, which is typical of modern NVIDIA architectures. The RX 590 GME also has a 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio, but at a far lower 6.543 TFLOPS.

The release timeline reflects the generational divide. The RTX 5070 launched on March 3, 2025, and is listed as "Active" in production. The RX 590 GME launched on March 8, 2020, and is "End-of-life." The RTX 5070's predecessor is the GeForce 40 series and its successor is the GeForce 60 series, while the RX 590 GME's predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega. The RTX 5070 is a dual-slot card measuring 245 mm in length, 115 mm in height, and 40 mm in width. The RX 590 GME is also dual-slot with a length of 241 mm, but its height and width are not recorded in the database.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5070 wins in every category supported by the recorded data. In DX12 gaming workloads, it leads by 407.2%, making it the clear choice for modern games that use DirectX 12. In compute workloads measured by Geekbench OpenCL, it leads by 375.7%, which covers tasks like rendering, physics simulation, and data processing. In Vulkan workloads, it leads by 195.7%, which matters for games and applications that use the Vulkan API.

The RX 590 GME does not win any recorded benchmark. However, there are practical scenarios where it might still be the appropriate choice based on system constraints. Its lower TDP of 175 W and 450 W suggested power supply requirement mean it can run in systems with smaller power supplies. Its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is compatible with older motherboards that lack PCIe 5.0 support. Its single 8-pin power connector is more universally compatible than the RTX 5070's 16-pin connector. And its 241 mm length is slightly shorter than the RTX 5070's 245 mm, which could matter in compact cases.

For a builder with an older system that has a PCIe 3.0 slot, a 450 W power supply, and no 16-pin GPU power cable, the RX 590 GME is the path of least resistance. It will fit and run without additional upgrades. The RTX 5070, by contrast, requires a PCIe 5.0 slot, a 600 W power supply, and a 16-pin connector, which may necessitate a motherboard, power supply, or adapter purchase.

That said, the performance data offers no reason to prefer the RX 590 GME on performance grounds alone. The RTX 5070 is 407.2% faster in DX12, 375.7% faster in OpenCL, and 195.7% faster in Vulkan. It has a higher average benchmark score (40377 versus 32601) and a higher percentile ranking (82 versus 77). The RX 590 GME's only advantages are compatibility and power requirements, not speed. If the system can accommodate the RTX 5070, the data says there is no contest. If it cannot, the RX 590 GME remains a functional fallback, but with performance that is multiple generations behind the current standard.