It is impossible to know the exact hash rate unless you have some way of remotely monitoring every miner (I don't most miners would appreciate that). The hash rate is estimated based on block solve times. If the network wide luck is up 25%, then we'll be solving blocks as if we had 50TH of power despite only having 40%.
For those periods where no blocks are found for over an hour the hash rate estimated is more or less 0
Even the pools don't know what cards you have. They only know how many shares you're putting out per minute and guess your hashrate based on that.
Miners are also jumping back/forth to altcoins like LTC, TRC and PPC.