Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition vs GeForce 9600 GSO
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 1146 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.09 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 0.69 | no data |
| Architecture | Tesla (2006−2010) | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) |
| GPU code name | G92 | Pitcairn |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 28 April 2008 (16 years ago) | 23 November 2014 (10 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $49.99 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices 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. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 96 | 1024 |
| Core clock speed | 550 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 975 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 754 million | 2,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 65 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 105 Watt | 80 Watt |
| Maximum GPU temperature | 105 °C | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 26.40 | 62.40 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.264 TFLOPS | 1.997 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 12 | 32 |
| TMUs | 48 | 64 |
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 | PCI-E 2.0 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 229 mm | no data |
| Height | 4.376" (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | None |
| SLI options | 2-way | - |
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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 384 MB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 192 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 800 MHz | 1365 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 38.4 GB/s | 174.7 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 | Dual Link DVIHDTV | No outputs |
| Multi monitor support | + | no data |
| HDMI | + | - |
| Maximum VGA resolution | 2048x1536 | no data |
| Audio input for HDMI | S/PDIF | no data |
API and SDK compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_0) | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 2.1 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | 1.2 |
| CUDA | + | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 28 April 2008 | 23 November 2014 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 384 MB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 65 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 105 Watt | 80 Watt |
R9 M290X Mac Edition has an age advantage of 6 years, a 433.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 132.1% more advanced lithography process, and 31.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between GeForce 9600 GSO and Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce 9600 GSO is a desktop card while Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition is a notebook one.
Other comparisons
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