Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition vs R9 270X

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking389not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation5.63no data
Power efficiency4.86no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameCuracaoPitcairn
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date8 October 2013 (11 years ago)23 November 2014 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 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 cores12801024
Core clock speedno data850 MHz
Boost clock speed1050 MHz975 MHz
Number of transistors2,800 million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)180 Watt80 Watt
Texture fill rate84.0062.40
Floating-point processing power2.688 TFLOPS1.997 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs8064

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 supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2 x 6-pinNone

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 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1365 MHz
Memory bandwidth179.2 GB/s174.7 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 DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-
DisplayPort support+-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration+-
CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudio+-
UVD+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (11_1)
Shader Model5.15.1
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan+1.2

Pros & cons summary


Recency 8 October 2013 23 November 2014
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 180 Watt 80 Watt

R9 270X has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

R9 M290X Mac Edition, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 125% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 270X and Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 270X is a desktop card while Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition 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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AMD Radeon R9 270X
Radeon R9 270X
AMD Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition
Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition

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Community ratings

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