GeForce RTX 4090 vs ATI FireGL X3-256
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 1 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 6 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 18.83 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 15.23 |
| Architecture | R400 (2004−2008) | Ada Lovelace (2022−2024) |
| GPU code name | R420 | AD102 |
| Market segment | Workstation | Desktop |
| Release date | 3 August 2004 (20 years ago) | 20 September 2022 (2 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1,099 | $1,599 |
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 | no data | 16384 |
| Core clock speed | 491 MHz | 2235 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 2520 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 160 million | 76,300 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 130 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 57 Watt | 450 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 5.892 | 1,290 |
| Floating-point processing power | no data | 82.58 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 12 | 176 |
| TMUs | 12 | 512 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 512 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 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 | AGP 8x | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 304 mm |
| Width | 1-slot | 3-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x Molex | 1x 16-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 | GDDR3 | GDDR6X |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 24 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 454 MHz | 1313 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 29.06 GB/s | 1.01 TB/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 S-Video | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| HDMI | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 9.0b (9_2) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | no data | 6.8 |
| OpenGL | 2.0 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | N/A | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | N/A | 1.3 |
| CUDA | - | 8.9 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 3 August 2004 | 20 September 2022 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 24 GB |
| Chip lithography | 130 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 57 Watt | 450 Watt |
ATI FireGL X3-256 has 689.5% lower power consumption.
RTX 4090, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 18 years, a 9500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 2500% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between FireGL X3-256 and GeForce RTX 4090. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that FireGL X3-256 is a workstation graphics card while GeForce RTX 4090 is a desktop one.
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.
