Radeon RX 490M vs GeForce GTX 970

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking214not rated
Place by popularity57not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation13.75no data
Power efficiency11.75no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Polaris (2016−2019)
GPU code nameGM204Polaris
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date19 September 2014 (10 years ago)1 August 2016 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$329 no data

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 cores1664no data
Core clock speed1050 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1178 MHzno data
Number of transistors5,200 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)148 Wattno data
Maximum GPU temperature98 °Cno data
Texture fill rate122.5no data
Floating-point processing power3.92 TFLOPSno data
ROPs56no data
TMUs104no data

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 sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16no data
Length267 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slotno data
Recommended system power (PSU)500 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinno data
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GBno data
Memory bus width256 Bitno data
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/sno data
Memory bandwidth224 GB/sno data
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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2no data
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12
Shader Model6.4no data
OpenGL4.4no data
OpenCL1.2no data
Vulkan1.1.126-
CUDA+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 19 September 2014 1 August 2016
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm

RX 490M has an age advantage of 1 year, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 970 and Radeon RX 490M. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 970 is a desktop card while Radeon RX 490M is a notebook one.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
GeForce GTX 970
AMD Radeon RX 490M
Radeon RX 490M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.2 4749 votes

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2.7 7 votes

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Questions & comments

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