GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile vs Radeon R9 290

Place in the ranking	262	281
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	8.01	27.08
Power efficiency	5.23	16.87
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	Pascal (2016−2021)
GPU code name	Hawaii	GP106
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	5 November 2013 (11 years ago)	15 August 2016 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$399	$237.11

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 1060 Mobile has 238% better value for money than R9 290.

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	2560	1280
Core clock speed	947 MHz	1506 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1708 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	4,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	16 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	80 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	no data	94 °C
Texture fill rate	151.5	133.6
Floating-point processing power	4.849 TFLOPS	4.275 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	48
TMUs	160	80

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	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

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	6 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	2002 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	192 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 Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	DP 1.43, HDMI 2.0b, Dual Link-DVI
Multi monitor support	no data	+
HDMI	+	-
HDCP	-	2.2
G-SYNC support	-	+

Supported technologies

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

GameStream	-	+
GPU Boost	no data	3.0
VR Ready	no data	+
Ansel	-	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D 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	-	+

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.

R9 290 21.00
+6.6%

GTX 1060 Mobile 19.70

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.

R9 290 11860
+2.6%

GTX 1060 Mobile 11558

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:

Full HD	70−75 +2.9%	68 −2.9%
1440p	45−50 +2.3%	44 −2.3%
4K	27−30 −3.7%	28 +3.7%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	5.70	3.49
1440p	8.87	5.39
4K	14.78	8.47

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	62 +0%	62 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	53 +0%	53 +0%
Battlefield 5	78 +0%	78 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	61 +0%	61 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	30 +0%	30 +0%
Far Cry 5	75 +0%	75 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	76 +0%	76 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	229 +0%	229 +0%
Hitman 3	54 +0%	54 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	136 +0%	136 +0%
Metro Exodus	81 +0%	81 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	74 +0%	74 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	119 +0%	119 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	137 +0%	137 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	91 +0%	91 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	45 +0%	45 +0%
Battlefield 5	69 +0%	69 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	55 +0%	55 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	25 +0%	25 +0%
Far Cry 5	59 +0%	59 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	58 +0%	58 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	210 +0%	210 +0%
Hitman 3	51 +0%	51 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	134 +0%	134 +0%
Metro Exodus	70 +0%	70 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	62 +0%	62 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80 +0%	80 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	122 +0%	122 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	133 +0%	133 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	37 +0%	37 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	38 +0%	38 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40 +0%	40 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	23 +0%	23 +0%
Far Cry 5	43 +0%	43 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	71 +0%	71 +0%
Hitman 3	45 +0%	45 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	66 +0%	66 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	68 +0%	68 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	39 +0%	39 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	28 +0%	28 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	41 +0%	41 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	40 +0%	40 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27 +0%	27 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	27 +0%	27 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27 +0%	27 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Far Cry 5	28 +0%	28 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	173 +0%	173 +0%
Hitman 3	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	48 +0%	48 +0%
Metro Exodus	45 +0%	45 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	129 +0%	129 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	22 +0%	22 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	21 +0%	21 +0%
Hitman 3	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	59 +0%	59 +0%
Metro Exodus	22 +0%	22 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	26 +0%	26 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	18 +0%	18 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10 +0%	10 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	13 +0%	13 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	14 +0%	14 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	35 +0%	35 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

This is how R9 290 and GTX 1060 Mobile compete in popular games:

R9 290 is 3% faster in 1080p
R9 290 is 2% faster in 1440p
GTX 1060 Mobile is 4% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	21.00	19.70
Recency	5 November 2013	15 August 2016
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	6 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	16 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	80 Watt

R9 290 has a 6.6% higher aggregate performance score.

GTX 1060 Mobile, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 75% more advanced lithography process, and 243.8% lower power consumption.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Radeon R9 290 and GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile.

Be aware that Radeon R9 290 is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile is a notebook one.

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