Radeon R9 290 vs GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X

Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot rated259
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data7.90
Power efficiencyno data5.30
ArchitecturePascal (2016−2021)GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)
GPU code nameGP104Hawaii
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release dateno data (2024 years ago)5 November 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$399

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 cores12802560
Core clock speed1506 MHz947 MHz
Boost clock speed1709 MHzno data
Number of transistors7,200 million6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology16 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)120 Watt275 Watt
Texture fill rate136.7151.5
Floating-point processing power4.375 TFLOPS4.849 TFLOPS
ROPs6464
TMUs80160

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).

InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length250 mm275 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 6-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 typeGDDR5XGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount8 GB4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit512 Bit
Memory clock speed1001 MHz1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth256.3 GB/s320.0 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMI++

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12 (12_0)
Shader Model6.76.3
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL3.02.0
Vulkan1.31.2.131
CUDA6.1-

Pros & cons summary


Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 4 GB
Chip lithography 16 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 120 Watt 275 Watt

GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 75% more advanced lithography process, and 129.2% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X and Radeon R9 290. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X
GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X
AMD Radeon R9 290
Radeon R9 290

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.


3.5 124 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.2 552 votes

Rate Radeon R9 290 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.