NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no direct head-to-head benchmark results between the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q. Instead, each card is measured against its own peer group, and the recorded scores come from entirely different test suites. The GTX 590 was evaluated with Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 12,830, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q was evaluated with 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, scoring 11,088. Because these are different workloads, the raw numbers cannot be compared as if they were equivalent measurements. What the data does show is how each card sits within its respective competitive landscape.

The GTX 590's Geekbench OpenCL score places it at the 52nd percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 455, scores 12,831, a delta of 0%, meaning the GTX 590 and that AMD part are effectively tied in this test. The GTX 590 sits 0.1% behind the AMD FirePro W5100, which scores 12,847, and 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon 740M, which scores 12,870. It also sits 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, which scores 12,773. The picture here is one of a card clustered tightly among a group of much newer and much smaller parts, all within a fraction of a percent of each other. The GTX 590 is not dominating its neighbors; it is statistically inseparable from them.

The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q, on the other hand, sits at the 50th percentile. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, which scores an identical 11,088, a delta of 0%. The AMD Radeon RX 550 trails by 0.1% with a score of 11,075, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER trails by 0.4% with a score of 11,047. The AMD FirePro W4300 leads by 1.2% with a score of 11,225. So in the Steel Nomad test, the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q is again locked in a very tight race, this time with a FirePro part edging it out by a bit more than a single percentage point. Neither card in this comparison breaks away from its rivals; both are mid-pack performers relative to their measured peers.

The lack of a shared benchmark means any attempt to claim a direct winner between the GTX 590 and the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q from performance data alone is unsupported. What the database does reveal is that both cards occupy similar percentile positions, 52 for the GTX 590 and 50 for the RTX PRO 6000D, despite being separated by over a decade of architecture development. That is a curious result worth investigating further.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent opposite ends of NVIDIA's design timeline. The GTX 590 uses the GF110 chip, built on Fermi 2.0 architecture from the GeForce 500 generation. It is fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC, with 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 5.8 million transistors per square millimeter. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q uses the GB202 chip, built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture from the Blackwell PRO W (x000) generation. It is fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC, with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 122.9 million per square millimeter. That is a massive jump in density, roughly 21 times the transistors packed into a die only about 44% larger in area.

The memory subsystems are equally divergent. The GTX 590 ships with 1536 MB of GDDR5 on a 384 bit bus, delivering 164.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q ships with 96 GB of GDDR7 on a 512 bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. That is over 10 times the bandwidth and 64 times the memory capacity. The GTX 590's memory runs at 854 MHz, 3.4 Gbps effective, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q runs at 1750 MHz, 28 Gbps effective. The clock speed difference alone illustrates how far memory technology has moved.

Compute resources tell a similar story. The GTX 590 has 512 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000D also includes 188 ray tracing cores and 752 tensor cores, features that did not exist in the Fermi architecture. The GTX 590 has no ray tracing or tensor hardware. Pixel rate jumps from 19.46 GPixel/s to 439.3 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 38.91 GTexel/s to 1,720.6 GTexel/s. FP32 compute goes from 1,244.2 GFLOPS to 110.1 TFLOPS, a roughly 88 fold increase. The RTX PRO 6000D also offers FP16 at 110.1 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the GTX 590 has no listed FP16 capability.

Power and interface requirements also differ. The GTX 590 has a TDP of 365 W, uses dual-slot cooling, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 750 W power supply. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has a lower TDP of 300 W despite the enormous compute increase, uses dual-slot cooling, requires a single 16-pin connector, and suggests a 700 W power supply. The GTX 590 uses PCIe 2.0 x16, while the RTX PRO 6000D uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs are 3x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort for the GTX 590, compared to 4x DisplayPort 2.1b for the RTX PRO 6000D.

API support also reflects the generational gap. The GTX 590 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, with no Vulkan listing. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 590 measures 279 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width. The RTX PRO 6000D is slightly shorter at 267 mm, with the same 111 mm height and 40 mm width.

The Verdict

The data does not support a direct performance verdict between these two cards because no shared benchmark exists in the database. What the data does support is a verdict based on capability profile. The GTX 590 is an end-of-life product from 2011, with a launch MSRP of 699 USD, a 365 W TDP, and no ray tracing or tensor hardware. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q is an active product from 2025, with a launch MSRP of 8,565 USD, a lower 300 W TDP, and full ray tracing and tensor core support. For any workload that relies on modern features, the RTX PRO 6000D is the only option between the two. For legacy compatibility or a historical comparison, the GTX 590 remains a documented data point.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has 96 GB of GDDR7, while the GTX 590 has 1536 MB of GDDR5.

Q: Does the GTX 590 support ray tracing?

A: No. The GTX 590 has no ray tracing cores listed, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has 188 ray tracing cores.

Q: Which card has a higher TDP?

A: The GTX 590 has a TDP of 365 W, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has a TDP of 300 W.

Q: Are the two cards compared directly in any benchmark?

A: No. The database records a Geekbench OpenCL score for the GTX 590 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score for the RTX PRO 6000D, but no shared test.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The GTX 590 has 3,000 million transistors, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has 92,200 million transistors.

Q: Which card supports Vulkan?

A: The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q supports Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 590 has no Vulkan listing in the database.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 590 wins in the narrower sense of being a lighter power draw per memory bus width, but that is not a meaningful workload advantage. Looking strictly at the recorded data, the GTX 590's wins are limited to its percentile position, 52 versus 50, and its lower launch MSRP of 699 USD compared to 8,565 USD. It also uses a smaller physical footprint in terms of transistor count and die size, which is only relevant to historical analysis.

The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q wins on every modern compute metric. It has more shading units, 24,064 versus 512, more TMUs, 752 versus 64, more ROPs, 192 versus 48, and it adds 188 ray tracing cores and 752 tensor cores that the GTX 590 lacks entirely. Its FP32 output of 110.1 TFLOPS dwarfs the GTX 590's 1,244.2 GFLOPS. Its memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is more than ten times the GTX 590's 164.0 GB/s. Its pixel rate of 439.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,720.6 GTexel/s are both orders of magnitude above the GTX 590's 19.46 GPixel/s and 38.91 GTexel/s. It also achieves all of this with a lower TDP of 300 W versus 365 W, a single 16-pin power connector instead of 2x 8-pin, and a smaller length of 267 mm versus 279 mm.

For use cases, the GTX 590 is only relevant to someone cataloging legacy hardware or running software that predates modern APIs. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q is the clear choice for any current workload involving ray tracing, tensor operations, high-resolution rendering, or large memory footprints. The data points to one conclusion: the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q is the superior card in every measurable capability, while the GTX 590's only advantages are historical and financial.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every recorded specification. The process node shifts from 40 nm to 5 nm. Transistors go from 3,000 million to 92,200 million. Die size goes from 520 mm² to 750 mm². Transistor density goes from 5.8M per mm² to 122.9M per mm². The GTX 590 has no base or boost clock listed, while the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q has a base clock of 1590 MHz and a boost clock of 2288 MHz. Memory clock goes from 854 MHz (3.4 Gbps effective) to 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). Memory size goes from 1536 MB to 96 GB. Memory type goes from GDDR5 to GDDR7. Bus width goes from 384 bit to 512 bit. Bandwidth goes from 164.0 GB/s to 1.79 TB/s.

Shading units go from 512 to 24,064. TMUs go from 64 to 752. ROPs go from 48 to 192. Ray tracing cores go from none to 188. Tensor cores go from none to 752. Pixel rate goes from 19.46 GPixel/s to 439.3 GPixel/s. Texture rate goes from 38.91 GTexel/s to 1,720.6 GTexel/s. FP32 goes from 1,244.2 GFLOPS to 110.1 TFLOPS. FP16 is not listed for the GTX 590, while the RTX PRO 6000D lists 110.1 TFLOPS (1:1). TDP goes from 365 W to 300 W. Power connectors go from 2x 8-pin to 1x 16-pin. Suggested PSU goes from 750 W to 700 W. Bus interface goes from PCIe 2.0 x16 to PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs go from 3x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort to 4x DisplayPort 2.1b.

DirectX support goes from 12 (11_0) to 12 Ultimate (12_2). OpenGL stays at 4.6 for both. Vulkan is not listed for the GTX 590 but is 1.4 for the RTX PRO 6000D. Length goes from 279 mm to 267 mm. Height stays at 111 mm. Width stays at 40 mm. Production status goes from end-of-life to active. Release dates are 2011-03-23 and 2025-03-17. Launch MSRP goes from 699 USD to 8,565 USD. The GTX 590's predecessor is GeForce 400 and successor is GeForce 600. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q's predecessor is Workstation Ada and it has no successor listed.