Radeon R5 M230 vs R9 290

Place in the ranking	259	1085
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	7.90	no data
Power efficiency	5.28	no data
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code name	Hawaii	Jet
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	5 November 2013 (11 years ago)	7 January 2014 (10 years 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	320
Compute units	no data	5
Core clock speed	947 MHz	825 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	855 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	690 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	unknown
Texture fill rate	151.5	17.10
Floating-point processing power	4.849 TFLOPS	0.5472 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	8
TMUs	160	20

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 support	no data	PCIe 3.0 x8
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x8
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	no data

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	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	1000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	16 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

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	No outputs
Eyefinity	-	+
HDMI	+	-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration	-	+
HD3D	-	+
PowerTune	-	+
DualGraphics	-	+
ZeroCore	-	+
Switchable graphics	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_0)	DirectX® 11
Shader Model	6.3	5.1
OpenGL	4.6	4.4
OpenCL	2.0	Not Listed
Vulkan	1.2.131	-
Mantle	-	+

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
+1861%

R5 M230 1.07

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
+1855%

R5 M230 414

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
+1438%

R5 M230 771

Gaming performance

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

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD

190−200
+1800%

−1800%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

2.10

no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

+0%

3−4

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Hitman 3	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Hitman 3	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Hitman 3	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

1−2

+0%

1−2

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	0−1	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%