Radeon R9 290 vs GeForce GTX TITAN

Place in performance ranking	239	243
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Value for money	2.70	12.45
Architecture	Kepler (2012−2018)	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)
GPU code name	GK110	Hawaii
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 February 2013 (11 years old)	5 November 2013 (10 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$999	$399
Current price	$640 (0.6x MSRP)	$20 (0.1x MSRP)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 290 has 361% better value for money than GTX TITAN.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2688	2560
CUDA cores	2688	no data
Core clock speed	837 MHz	947 MHz
Boost clock speed	876 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	7,080 million	6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	275 Watt
Texture fill rate	187.5 billion/sec	151.5
Floating-point performance	4,709 gflops	4,849 gflops

Size and 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 Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	10.5" (26.7 cm)	275 mm
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	One 8-pin and one 6-pin	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

Memory

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	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	384-bit GDDR5	512 Bit
Memory clock speed	6.0 GB/s	5000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	288.4 GB/s	320.0 GB/s

Video outputs and ports

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	One Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Multi monitor support	4 displays	no data
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	+	no data
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	no data

Technologies

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

Blu Ray 3D	+	no data
3D Gaming	+	no data
3D Vision	+	no data
3D Vision Live	+	no data

API support

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	5.1	6.3
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.1.126	1.2.131
CUDA	+	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

GTX TITAN 21.12
+1.1%

R9 290 20.89

GeForce GTX TITAN outperforms Radeon R9 290 by 1% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX TITAN 8180
+1.1%

R9 290 8093

GeForce GTX TITAN outperforms Radeon R9 290 by 1% in Passmark.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX TITAN 10470

R9 290 11860
+13.3%

Radeon R9 290 outperforms GeForce GTX TITAN by 13% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

GTX TITAN 1783
+23.8%

R9 290 1440

GeForce GTX TITAN outperforms Radeon R9 290 by 24% in Unigine Heaven 4.0.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance score	21.12	20.89
Recency	19 February 2013	5 November 2013
Cost	$999	$399
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	4 GB
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	275 Watt