GeForce FX 5100 vs Radeon R9 290

Place in the ranking	260	1491
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	8.00	no data
Power efficiency	5.31	no data
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	Rankine (2003−2005)
GPU code name	Hawaii	NV34 A1
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	5 November 2013 (11 years ago)	6 March 2003 (21 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$399	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2560	no data
Core clock speed	947 MHz	200 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	45 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	150 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	no data
Texture fill rate	151.5	0.8
Floating-point processing power	4.849 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	64	4
TMUs	160	4

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	AGP 8x
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	None

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	DDR
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	64 MB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	166 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	2.656 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x VGA, 1x S-Video
HDMI	+	-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (12_0)	9.0a
Shader Model	6.3	no data
OpenGL	4.6	1.5 (2.1)
OpenCL	2.0	N/A
Vulkan	1.2.131	N/A

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

R9 290 20.98
+104800%

FX 5100 0.02

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

R9 290 8093
+115514%

FX 5100 7

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	20.98	0.02
Recency	5 November 2013	6 March 2003
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	64 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	150 nm

R9 290 has a 104800% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 6300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 435.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon R9 290 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce FX 5100 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.