GeForce RTX 5090 vs Radeon HD 6990M

Place in the ranking	623	6
Place by popularity	not in top-100	58
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	8.97
Power efficiency	3.63	9.98
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	Blackwell 2.0 (2025)
GPU code name	Blackcomb	GB202
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	12 July 2011 (13 years ago)	30 January 2025 (recently)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,999

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 cores	1120	21760
Core clock speed	715 MHz	2017 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2407 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	92,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	575 Watt
Texture fill rate	40.04	1,637
Floating-point processing power	1.602 TFLOPS	104.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	176
TMUs	56	680
Tensor Cores	no data	680
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	170

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 size	large	no data
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 5.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 16-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 type	GDDR5	GDDR7
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	32 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	512 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	1.79 TB/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 Connectors	No outputs	1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1b
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.8
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.4
CUDA	-	10.1

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:

900p	54 −1474%	850−900 +1474%
Full HD	59 −251%	207 +251%
1440p	10−12 −1740%	184 +1740%
4K	8−9 −1663%	141 +1663%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	9.66
1440p	no data	10.86
4K	no data	14.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +83.3%	6−7 −83.3%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −1445%	170−180 +1445%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +83.3%	6−7 −83.3%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −1445%	170−180 +1445%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −1264%	300−310 +1264%
Forza Horizon 5	10−11 −1400%	150−160 +1400%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −1438%	200−210 +1438%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +433%	3−4 −433%
Valorant	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +83.3%	6−7 −83.3%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −1445%	170−180 +1445%
Dota 2	16−18 −1429%	260−270 +1429%
Far Cry 5	24−27 −536%	159 +536%
Fortnite	30−35 −1352%	450−500 +1352%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −1264%	300−310 +1264%
Forza Horizon 5	10−11 −1400%	150−160 +1400%
Grand Theft Auto V	16−18 −1429%	260−270 +1429%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −1438%	200−210 +1438%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	40−45 +1000%	4−5 −1000%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +433%	3−4 −433%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +325%	4−5 −325%
Valorant	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%
World of Tanks	85−90 +963%	8−9 −963%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −1736%	202 +1736%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −1445%	170−180 +1445%
Dota 2	16−18 −1429%	260−270 +1429%
Far Cry 5	24−27 +317%	6−7 −317%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −1264%	300−310 +1264%
Forza Horizon 5	10−11 −1400%	150−160 +1400%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	40−45 +1000%	4−5 −1000%
Valorant	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	5−6 −1400%	75−80 +1400%
Grand Theft Auto V	5−6 −1400%	75−80 +1400%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	30−35 −1415%	500−550 +1415%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −1400%	60−65 +1400%
World of Tanks	35−40 −1479%	600−650 +1479%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	8−9 −1400%	120−130 +1400%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −1400%	75−80 +1400%
Far Cry 5	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −1456%	140−150 +1456%
Forza Horizon 5	7−8 −1471%	110−120 +1471%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −1400%	75−80 +1400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9 −1400%	120−130 +1400%
Valorant	14−16 +250%	4−5 −250%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	6−7 −2800%	174 +2800%
Dota 2	16−18 +13.3%	14−16 −13.3%
Grand Theft Auto V	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%
Metro Exodus	1−2 −16600%	167 +16600%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	14−16 −1433%	230−240 +1433%
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −1400%	45−50 +1400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −1463%	250−260 +1463%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 −1400%	60−65 +1400%
Counter-Strike 2	6−7 −817%	55 +817%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −1400%	30−33 +1400%
Dota 2	16−18 −1429%	260−270 +1429%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −1400%	90−95 +1400%
Fortnite	4−5 −1400%	60−65 +1400%
Forza Horizon 4	5−6 −1400%	75−80 +1400%
Forza Horizon 5	3−4 −1400%	45−50 +1400%
Valorant	5−6	0−1

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2

183

+0%

183

+0%

This is how HD 6990M and RTX 5090 compete in popular games:

RTX 5090 is 1474% faster in 900p
RTX 5090 is 251% faster in 1080p
RTX 5090 is 1740% faster in 1440p
RTX 5090 is 1663% faster in 4K

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

in PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the HD 6990M is 1000% faster.
in Metro Exodus, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 5090 is 16600% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

HD 6990M is ahead in 13 tests (68%)
RTX 5090 is ahead in 5 tests (26%)
there's a draw in 1 test (5%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.20	82.26
Recency	12 July 2011	30 January 2025
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	32 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	575 Watt

HD 6990M has 475% lower power consumption.

RTX 5090, on the other hand, has a 1481.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 13 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 5090 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6990M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6990M is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 5090 is a desktop one.

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