Radeon R7 250 vs HD 6790

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6790 and Radeon R7 250, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6790
2011
1 GB GDDR5, 150 Watt
4.19
+52.9%

HD 6790 outperforms R7 250 by an impressive 53% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking680799
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.760.10
Power efficiency1.952.94
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameBartsOland
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designno datareference
Release date4 April 2011 (13 years ago)8 October 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$149 $89

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 6790 has 660% better value for money than R7 250.

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 cores800384
Core clock speed840 MHzno data
Boost clock speedno data1050 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million950 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate33.6025.20
Floating-point processing power1.344 TFLOPS0.8064 TFLOPS
ROPs168
TMUs4024

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 supportno dataPCIe 3.0
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length198 mm168 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinN/A

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 amount1 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed1050 MHz1150 MHz
Memory bandwidth134.4 GB/s72 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
HDMI++

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration-+
CrossFire-+
FreeSync-+
DDMA audiono data+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)DirectX® 12
Shader Model5.05.1
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.21.2
VulkanN/A-

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.

HD 6790 4.19
+52.9%
R7 250 2.74

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.

HD 6790 1618
+52.9%
R7 250 1058

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

HD 6790 2887
+4%
R7 250 2775

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.

HD 6790 13637
+8.4%
R7 250 12581

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.

HD 6790 2150
+0.2%
R7 250 2145

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:

900p52
+73.3%
30−35
−73.3%
Full HD61
+205%
20
−205%

Cost per frame, $

1080p2.444.45

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+33.3%
9−10
−33.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Battlefield 5 10−11
+150%
4−5
−150%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Hitman 3 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30
+33.3%
21−24
−33.3%
Metro Exodus 8−9
+167%
3−4
−167%
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18
+33.3%
12−14
−33.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+13.2%
35−40
−13.2%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+33.3%
9−10
−33.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Battlefield 5 10−11
+150%
4−5
−150%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Hitman 3 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30
+33.3%
21−24
−33.3%
Metro Exodus 8−9
+167%
3−4
−167%
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18
+33.3%
12−14
−33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+14.3%
14−16
−14.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+13.2%
35−40
−13.2%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+33.3%
9−10
−33.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Hitman 3 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30
+33.3%
21−24
−33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18
+33.3%
12−14
−33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+14.3%
14−16
−14.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+13.2%
35−40
−13.2%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Forza Horizon 4 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
Metro Exodus 0−1 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 24−27
+62.5%
16−18
−62.5%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Far Cry New Dawn 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Hitman 3 0−1 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 1−2 0−1
Metro Exodus 1−2 0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 3−4 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%

This is how HD 6790 and R7 250 compete in popular games:

  • HD 6790 is 73% faster in 900p
  • HD 6790 is 205% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 6790 is 200% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, HD 6790 surpassed R7 250 in all 60 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 4.19 2.74
Recency 4 April 2011 8 October 2013
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 75 Watt

HD 6790 has a 52.9% higher aggregate performance score.

R7 250, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 100% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 6790 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R7 250 in performance tests.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 6790
AMD Radeon R7 250
Radeon R7 250

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.


4 153 votes

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3.6 435 votes

Rate Radeon R7 250 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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