GeForce GTX 690 vs Radeon R9 290

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 290 and GeForce GTX 690, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

R9 290
2013
4 GB GDDR5, 275 Watt
21.01
+46.7%

R9 290 outperforms GTX 690 by a considerable 47% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking262367
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation8.021.49
Power efficiency5.243.27
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)Kepler (2012−2018)
GPU code nameHawaiiGK104
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date5 November 2013 (11 years ago)3 May 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$399 $999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 290 has 438% better value for money than GTX 690.

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 cores25603072
Core clock speed947 MHz915 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1019 MHz
Number of transistors6,200 million3,540 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)275 Watt300 Watt
Texture fill rate151.5130.4
Floating-point processing power4.849 TFLOPS3.13 TFLOPS
ROPs6432
TMUs160128

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).

Bus supportno dataPCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length275 mm279 mm
Heightno data4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin2x 8-pin
SLI options-+

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GB4 GB (4 GB per GPU) GDDR5
Memory bus width512 Bit512-bit (256-bit per GPU)
Memory clock speed1250 MHz1502 MHz
Memory bandwidth320.0 GB/s384 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPortTwo Dual Link DVI-I. One Dual link DVI-D. One Mini-Displayport 1.2
Multi monitor supportno data4 displays
HDMI+Yes (via dongle)
HDCP-+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536
Audio input for HDMIno dataInternal

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

3D Blu-Ray-+
3D Gaming-+
3D Vision Live-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_0)12 (11_0)
Shader Model6.35.1
OpenGL4.64.2
OpenCL2.01.2
Vulkan1.2.1311.1.126
CUDA-+

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 21.01
+46.7%
GTX 690 14.32

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
+46.7%
GTX 690 5515

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

R9 290 11860
GTX 690 13160
+11%

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 21.01 14.32
Recency 5 November 2013 3 May 2012
Power consumption (TDP) 275 Watt 300 Watt

R9 290 has a 46.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and 9.1% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R9 290 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 690 in performance tests.


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

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AMD Radeon R9 290
Radeon R9 290
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
GeForce GTX 690

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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Questions & comments

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