Radeon RX 590 vs GeForce 9800M GT

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce 9800M GT with Radeon RX 590, including specs and performance data.

9800M GT
2008
512 MB GDDR3, 65 Watt
0.99

RX 590 outperforms 9800M GT by a whopping 2359% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking1104228
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data25.29
Power efficiency1.069.67
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameG92Polaris 30
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date29 July 2008 (16 years ago)15 November 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$279

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 cores962304
Core clock speed500 MHz1469 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1545 MHz
Number of transistors754 million5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology65 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)65 Watt175 Watt
Texture fill rate24.00222.5
Floating-point processing power0.24 TFLOPS7.119 TFLOPS
Gigaflops360no data
ROPs1632
TMUs48144

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 sizelargeno data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data241 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsNone1x 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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount512 MB8 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed800 MHz2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth51.2 GB/s256.0 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 ConnectorsNo outputs1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI-+

Supported technologies

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

FreeSync-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12 (12_0)
Shader Model4.06.4
OpenGL3.34.6
OpenCL1.12.0
VulkanN/A1.2.131
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.

9800M GT 0.99
RX 590 24.34
+2359%

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.

9800M GT 381
RX 590 9390
+2365%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

9800M GT 4011
RX 590 48454
+1108%

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:

Full HD4−5
−2375%
99
+2375%
1440p2−3
−2700%
56
+2700%
4K1−2
−3500%
36
+3500%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data2.82
1440pno data4.98
4Kno data7.75

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−1233%
40−45
+1233%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−1200%
65
+1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−1625%
69
+1625%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−1233%
40−45
+1233%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−8900%
90
+8900%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−4400%
90
+4400%
Hitman 3 5−6
−880%
45−50
+880%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−2215%
301
+2215%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−9000%
91
+9000%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−1900%
140
+1900%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−750%
272
+750%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−2160%
113
+2160%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−1500%
64
+1500%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−1233%
40−45
+1233%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−7300%
74
+7300%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−3450%
71
+3450%
Hitman 3 5−6
−880%
45−50
+880%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−2108%
287
+2108%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−7300%
74
+7300%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−1529%
114
+1529%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
−430%
50−55
+430%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−716%
261
+716%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−680%
39
+680%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−1050%
46
+1050%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−1233%
40−45
+1233%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−5400%
55
+5400%
Hitman 3 5−6
−880%
45−50
+880%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−638%
96
+638%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−1329%
100
+1329%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
−410%
51
+410%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−9.4%
35
+9.4%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−6300%
64
+6300%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 1−2
−4500%
45−50
+4500%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−3600%
35−40
+3600%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−2400%
24−27
+2400%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−1400%
14−16
+1400%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−2700%
27−30
+2700%
Hitman 3 7−8
−314%
27−30
+314%
Horizon Zero Dawn 4−5
−1700%
72
+1700%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 0−1 30−33
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
−4975%
203
+4975%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
−1333%
43
+1333%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn 0−1 26

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−1800%
19
+1800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 0−1 42
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 0−1 20
Far Cry 5 0−1 17

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−1400%
30
+1400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 86
+0%
86
+0%
Battlefield 5 136
+0%
136
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 274
+0%
274
+0%
Metro Exodus 124
+0%
124
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 73
+0%
73
+0%
Battlefield 5 122
+0%
122
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 259
+0%
259
+0%
Metro Exodus 97
+0%
97
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 62
+0%
62
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 91
+0%
91
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 55
+0%
55
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 38
+0%
38
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 130−140
+0%
130−140
+0%
Metro Exodus 58
+0%
58
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 70
+0%
70
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 39
+0%
39
+0%
Hitman 3 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 57
+0%
57
+0%
Metro Exodus 36
+0%
36
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 32
+0%
32
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 46
+0%
46
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 40
+0%
40
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 13
+0%
13
+0%

This is how 9800M GT and RX 590 compete in popular games:

  • RX 590 is 2375% faster in 1080p
  • RX 590 is 2700% faster in 1440p
  • RX 590 is 3500% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX 590 is 9000% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • RX 590 is ahead in 43 tests (64%)
  • there's a draw in 24 tests (36%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 0.99 24.34
Recency 29 July 2008 15 November 2018
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 8 GB
Chip lithography 65 nm 12 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 65 Watt 175 Watt

9800M GT has 169.2% lower power consumption.

RX 590, on the other hand, has a 2358.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 441.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 590 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 9800M GT in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce 9800M GT is a notebook card while Radeon RX 590 is a desktop 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

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NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT
GeForce 9800M GT
AMD Radeon RX 590
Radeon RX 590

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.


3.6 7 votes

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4.1 2449 votes

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Questions & comments

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