GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB vs Radeon R9 290X

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking285not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation4.82no data
Power efficiency4.61no data
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameHawaiiGA107
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date24 October 2013 (11 years ago)6 July 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$549 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 cores28162048
Core clock speedno data622 MHz
Boost clock speed947 MHz990 MHz
Number of transistors6,200 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)250 Watt35 Watt
Texture fill rate176.063.36
Floating-point processing power5.632 TFLOPS4.055 TFLOPS
ROPs6432
TMUs17664
Tensor Coresno data64
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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 supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x8
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pinNone

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount4 GB6 GB
Memory bus width512 Bit96 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth320 GB/s144.0 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPortPortable Device Dependent
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-
DisplayPort support+-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration+-
CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudio+-
UVD+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.36.7
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.03.0
Vulkan+1.3
CUDA-8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 24 October 2013 6 July 2022
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 35 Watt

RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB has an age advantage of 8 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 614.3% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 290X and GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 290X is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB is a notebook one.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon R9 290X
Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB
GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB

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.


4.1 447 votes

Rate Radeon R9 290X on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.7 11 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.