Radeon RX 5700 XT vs R9 290

Place in the ranking	262	89
Place by popularity	not in top-100	56
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	8.02	47.00
Power efficiency	5.24	13.07
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	RDNA 1.0 (2019−2020)
GPU code name	Hawaii	Navi 10
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	5 November 2013 (11 years ago)	7 July 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$399	$399

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 5700 XT has 486% 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	2560
Core clock speed	947 MHz	1605 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1905 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	10,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	225 Watt
Texture fill rate	151.5	304.8
Floating-point processing power	4.849 TFLOPS	9.754 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	64
TMUs	160	160

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 4.0 x16
Length	275 mm	272 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	320.0 GB/s	448.0 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	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+	+

Supported technologies

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

VR Ready	no data	+
Multi Monitor	no data	+

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	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	+

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 21.01

RX 5700 XT 42.91
+104%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. 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.

R9 290 8093

RX 5700 XT 16530
+104%

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

RX 5700 XT 26189
+121%

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	60−65 −108%	125 +108%
1440p	35−40 −117%	76 +117%
4K	21−24 −114%	45 +114%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	6.65	3.19
1440p	11.40	5.25
4K	19.00	8.87

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	76 +0%	76 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	110 +0%	110 +0%
Battlefield 5	199 +0%	199 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	118 +0%	118 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	78 +0%	78 +0%
Far Cry 5	125 +0%	125 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	118 +0%	118 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	298 +0%	298 +0%
Hitman 3	84 +0%	84 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	313 +0%	313 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	115 +0%	115 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	160−170 +0%	160−170 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	259 +0%	259 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	154 +0%	154 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	91 +0%	91 +0%
Battlefield 5	165 +0%	165 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	107 +0%	107 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	75 +0%	75 +0%
Far Cry 5	101 +0%	101 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	108 +0%	108 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	283 +0%	283 +0%
Hitman 3	86 +0%	86 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	294 +0%	294 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	97 +0%	97 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	193 +0%	193 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	248 +0%	248 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	62 +0%	62 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	78 +0%	78 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	80 +0%	80 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	67 +0%	67 +0%
Far Cry 5	73 +0%	73 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	148 +0%	148 +0%
Hitman 3	83 +0%	83 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	135 +0%	135 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	171 +0%	171 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	93 +0%	93 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	67 +0%	67 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

108

+0%

108

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	126 +0%	126 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	84 +0%	84 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	53 +0%	53 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	59 +0%	59 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	58 +0%	58 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	40 +0%	40 +0%
Far Cry 5	59 +0%	59 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	273 +0%	273 +0%
Hitman 3	59 +0%	59 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	104 +0%	104 +0%
Metro Exodus	104 +0%	104 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	119 +0%	119 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	241 +0%	241 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	56 +0%	56 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	44 +0%	44 +0%
Hitman 3	45 +0%	45 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	121 +0%	121 +0%
Metro Exodus	65 +0%	65 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	54 +0%	54 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35 +0%	35 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	33 +0%	33 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	33 +0%	33 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	17 +0%	17 +0%
Far Cry 5	30 +0%	30 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	79 +0%	79 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	71 +0%	71 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	13 +0%	13 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

This is how R9 290 and RX 5700 XT compete in popular games:

RX 5700 XT is 108% faster in 1080p
RX 5700 XT is 117% faster in 1440p
RX 5700 XT is 114% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

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

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	21.01	42.91
Recency	5 November 2013	7 July 2019
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	225 Watt

RX 5700 XT has a 104.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 300% more advanced lithography process, and 22.2% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 290 in performance tests.

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