Radeon RX 570 vs R9 290

Place in the ranking	258	303
Place by popularity	not in top-100	25
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	7.92	17.20
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	Hawaii	Polaris 20
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	5 November 2013 (10 years ago)	18 April 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$399	$169

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 570 has 117% better value for money than R9 290.

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	2048
Core clock speed	947 MHz	1168 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1244 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	120 Watt
Texture fill rate	151.5	159.2
Floating-point processing power	4.849 TFLOPS	5.095 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	32
TMUs	160	128

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	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	275 mm	241 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	1x 6-pin

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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	224.0 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	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+	+

Supported technologies

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

FreeSync

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_0)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	6.3	6.4
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	+

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
+16.2%

RX 570 18.06

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
+16.2%

RX 570 6967

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

RX 570 13827
+16.6%

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	95−100 +11.8%	85 −11.8%
1440p	50−55 +6.4%	47 −6.4%
4K	30−35 +7.1%	28 −7.1%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

27−30

+0%

27−30

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	62 +0%	62 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−33 +0%	30−33 +0%
Battlefield 5	106 +0%	106 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	68 +0%	68 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Far Cry 5	80 +0%	80 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	85 +0%	85 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	257 +0%	257 +0%
Hitman 3	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Metro Exodus	101 +0%	101 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	120 +0%	120 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	94 +0%	94 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−33 +0%	30−33 +0%
Battlefield 5	98 +0%	98 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	63 +0%	63 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Far Cry 5	69 +0%	69 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	61 +0%	61 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	255 +0%	255 +0%
Hitman 3	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Metro Exodus	82 +0%	82 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	33 +0%	33 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−33 +0%	30−33 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45 +0%	45 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Far Cry 5	46 +0%	46 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	75 +0%	75 +0%
Hitman 3	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	43 +0%	43 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

45−50

+0%

45−50

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	61 +0%	61 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	41 +0%	41 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	29 +0%	29 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	36 +0%	36 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Far Cry 5	30 +0%	30 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	149 +0%	149 +0%
Hitman 3	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Metro Exodus	48 +0%	48 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22 +0%	20−22 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−33

+0%

30−33

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30 +0%	30 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	21 +0%	21 +0%
Hitman 3	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	90−95 +0%	90−95 +0%
Metro Exodus	29 +0%	29 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	28 +0%	28 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	17 +0%	17 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20 +0%	20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	15 +0%	15 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	39 +0%	39 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

16−18

+0%

16−18

+0%

This is how R9 290 and RX 570 compete in popular games:

R9 290 is 12% faster in 1080p
R9 290 is 6% faster in 1440p
R9 290 is 7% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	20.98	18.06
Recency	5 November 2013	18 April 2017
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	120 Watt

R9 290 has a 16.2% higher aggregate performance score.

RX 570, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 129.2% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R9 290 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon RX 570 in performance tests.

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