GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile vs Radeon R9 290

Place in performance ranking	245	382
Place by popularity	not in top-100	89
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	12.45	11.55
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	Pascal (2016−2021)
GPU code name	Hawaii	GP107B
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	5 November 2013 (10 years ago)	3 January 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$399	no data
Current price	$20 (0.1x MSRP)	$256

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 290 has 8% better value for money than GTX 1050 Mobile.

Detailed specifications

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	2560	640
CUDA cores	no data	640
Core clock speed	947 MHz	1354 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1493 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	3,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	75 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	no data	97 °C
Texture fill rate	151.5	59.72
Floating-point performance	4,849 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 290 and GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	no data	large
Bus support	no data	PCIe 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	no data
SLI options	no data	-

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	4 GB	4000 MB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	5000 MHz	7008 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	112 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

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	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	DP 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, Dual Link-DVI
Multi monitor support	no data	+
HDMI	+	no data
HDCP	no data	2.2
G-SYNC support	no data	+

Supported technologies

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

GameStream	no data	+
GPU Boost	no data	3.0
Ansel	no data	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_0)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.3	6.4
OpenGL	4.6	4.5
OpenCL	2.0	1.2
Vulkan	1.2.131	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.

R9 290 20.91
+81.4%

GTX 1050 Mobile 11.53

Radeon R9 290 outperforms GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile by 81% 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%

R9 290 8093
+81.4%

GTX 1050 Mobile 4461

Radeon R9 290 outperforms GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile by 81% 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%

R9 290 11860
+95.5%

GTX 1050 Mobile 6068

Radeon R9 290 outperforms GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile by 95% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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	130−140 +78.1%	73 −78.1%
Full HD	80−85 +73.9%	46 −73.9%
1440p	40−45 +66.7%	24 −66.7%
4K	27−30 +80%	15 −80%

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	20.91	11.53
Recency	5 November 2013	3 January 2017
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	4000 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	75 Watt