GeForce GTX 970M vs Radeon R9 390

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 390 with GeForce GTX 970M, including specs and performance data.

R9 390
2015
0 MB GDDR5, 275 Watt
23.09
+55.7%

R9 390 outperforms GTX 970M by an impressive 56% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking238351
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation11.63no data
Power efficiency5.8112.68
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameGrenadaGM204
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date18 June 2015 (9 years ago)7 October 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$329 $2,560.89

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 390 and GTX 970M have a nearly equal value for money.

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 cores25601280
Core clock speedno data924 MHz
Boost clock speed1000 MHz1038 MHz
Number of transistors6,200 million5,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)275 Wattunknown
Texture fill rate160.083.04
Floating-point processing power5.12 TFLOPS2.657 TFLOPS
ROPs6448
TMUs16080

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).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCIe 3.0PCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16MXM-B (3.0)
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pinNone
SLI options-+
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

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
High bandwidth memory (HBM)-no data
Maximum RAM amount0 MB3 GB
Memory bus width512 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth384 GB/s120 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 DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
VGA аnalog display supportno data+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportno data+
HDMI++
DisplayPort support+-
G-SYNC support-+

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
PowerTune+-
TrueAudio+-
VCE+-
DDMA audio+no data
GameStream-+
GeForce ShadowPlay-+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorks-+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder-+
Optimus-+
BatteryBoost-+
Ansel-+

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (12_1)
Shader Model6.36.4
OpenGL4.64.5
OpenCL2.01.1
Vulkan+1.1.126
Mantle+-
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 390 23.09
+55.7%
GTX 970M 14.83

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 390 8909
+55.6%
GTX 970M 5724

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 390 12730
+70.6%
GTX 970M 7463

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:

900p210−220
+54.4%
136
−54.4%
Full HD85−90
+54.5%
55
−54.5%
1440p35−40
+40%
25
−40%
4K30−35
+42.9%
21
−42.9%

Cost per frame, $

1080p3.8746.56
1440p9.40102.44
4K10.97121.95

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 42
+0%
42
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Battlefield 5 52
+0%
52
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 50
+0%
50
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 48
+0%
48
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 144
+0%
144
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Metro Exodus 53
+0%
53
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 81
+0%
81
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 53
+0%
53
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Battlefield 5 44
+0%
44
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 41
+0%
41
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 37
+0%
37
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 131
+0%
131
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Metro Exodus 44
+0%
44
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 101
+0%
101
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21
+0%
21
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 29
+0%
29
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 36
+0%
36
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 26
+0%
26
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 26
+0%
26
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 25
+0%
25
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 17
+0%
17
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Far Cry 5 19
+0%
19
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 80
+0%
80
+0%
Hitman 3 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Metro Exodus 25
+0%
25
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 12
+0%
12
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 13
+0%
13
+0%
Hitman 3 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
+0%
70−75
+0%
Metro Exodus 14
+0%
14
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16
+0%
16
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Far Cry 5 8
+0%
8
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 6
+0%
6
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%

This is how R9 390 and GTX 970M compete in popular games:

  • R9 390 is 54% faster in 900p
  • R9 390 is 55% faster in 1080p
  • R9 390 is 40% faster in 1440p
  • R9 390 is 43% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 23.09 14.83
Recency 18 June 2015 7 October 2014

R9 390 has a 55.7% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 8 months.

The Radeon R9 390 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 970M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 390 is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 970M is a notebook one.


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 390
Radeon R9 390
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
GeForce GTX 970M

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.


4.2 563 votes

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4.2 305 votes

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Questions & comments

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