Radeon RX 9050 8 GB vs R9 290X

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking	349	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	4.37	no data
Power efficiency	4.75	no data
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	RDNA 4.0 (2025−2026)
GPU code name	Hawaii	Navi 44
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	24 October 2013 (12 years ago)	28 July 2026 (recently)
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices.

Performance to price scatter graph

Currently popular graphics cards are shown for comparison.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Real power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially if overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2816	1024
Core clock speed	no data	1700 MHz
Boost clock speed	947 MHz	2600 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	29,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	92 Watt
Texture fill rate	176.0	166.4
Floating-point processing power	5.632 TFLOPS	10.65 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	64
TMUs	176	64
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	16
L0 Cache	no data	256 KB
L1 Cache	704 KB	no data
L2 Cache	1024 KB	4 MB
L3 Cache	no data	32 MB

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	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 5.0 x16
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin	1x 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	8 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320 GB/s	288.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-
Resizable BAR	-	+

Connectivity and outputs

This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 1x DisplayPort 1.2	1x HDMI 2.1b, 2x DisplayPort 2.1a
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 and SDK support

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.5	6.8
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.1	2.2
Vulkan	+	1.4

Pros & cons summary

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Recency	24 October 2013	28 July 2026
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	92 Watt