Radeon RX 6850 XT vs R9 290
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 257 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 7.89 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 5.30 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 2.0 (2013−2017) | RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024) |
| GPU code name | Hawaii | Navi 21 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 5 November 2013 (10 years ago) | 2022 (2 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $399 | $649 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 4608 |
| Core clock speed | 947 MHz | no data |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 2250 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 6,200 million | 26,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 7 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 275 Watt | 325 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 151.5 | 648.0 |
| Floating-point processing power | 4.849 TFLOPS | 20.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 64 | 128 |
| TMUs | 160 | 288 |
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 4.0 x16 |
| Length | 275 mm | 267 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 2x 8-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 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 16 GB |
| Memory bus width | 512 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1250 MHz | 18 GB/s |
| Memory bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | 576.0 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 HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C |
| HDMI | + | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 6.3 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | 2.1 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.3 |
Pros & cons summary
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 16 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 7 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 275 Watt | 325 Watt |
R9 290 has 18.2% lower power consumption.
RX 6850 XT, on the other hand, has a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 290 and Radeon RX 6850 XT. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
