Radeon RX 560 896SP vs R9 255 OEM
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | GCN 4.0 (2016−2020) |
| GPU code name | Cape Verde | Polaris 21 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 21 December 2013 (10 years ago) | 4 July 2017 (7 years ago) |
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 | 512 | 896 |
| Core clock speed | 900 MHz | 1090 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 930 MHz | 1175 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,500 million | 3,000 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 45 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 29.76 | 65.80 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.9523 TFLOPS | 2.106 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 16 |
| TMUs | 32 | 56 |
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).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x8 |
| Length | no data | 170 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | None |
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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1150 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 73.6 GB/s | 112.0 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 Connectors | No outputs | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort |
| HDMI | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 (12_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.4 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.2.131 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 21 December 2013 | 4 July 2017 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 45 Watt |
RX 560 896SP has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 44.4% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 255 OEM and Radeon RX 560 896SP. 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.
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