AMD started Radeon R9 290X sales 24 October 2013 at a recommended price of $549 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a GCN 2.0 architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.25 GHz are supplied, and together with 512 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 320 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is a dual-slot graphics card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 275 mm. 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 250 Watt.

Primary details

Some basic facts about Radeon R9 290X: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in the ranking	289
Place by popularity	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	4.90
Power efficiency	4.55	of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)
GPU code name	Hawaii
Market segment	Desktop
Design	reference
Release date	24 October 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	of 14,999 (Quadro Plex 7000)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Detailed specifications

Radeon R9 290X's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon R9 290X's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2816	of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Boost clock speed	947 MHz	of 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	6,200 million	of 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	of 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	176.0	of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power	5.632 TFLOPS	of 109.7 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs	64	of 192 (Radeon RX 7900 XTX)
TMUs	176	of 1280 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon R9 290X and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	275 mm
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon R9 290X: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	of 294912 (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width	512 Bit	of 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	of 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth	320 GB/s	of 5,171 GB/s (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Shared memory	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon R9 290X. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Eyefinity	+
HDMI	+
DisplayPort support	+

Supported technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by Radeon R9 290X. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	+
CrossFire	+
FreeSync	+
HD3D	+
LiquidVR	+
TressFX	+
TrueAudio	+
UVD	+
DDMA audio	+

API compatibility

APIs supported by Radeon R9 290X, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	DirectX® 12
Shader Model	6.3
OpenGL	4.6
OpenCL	2.0
Vulkan	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon R9 290X. 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 290X 19.27

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 290X 7425

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

R9 290X 16168

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

R9 290X 37284

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 290X 11717

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

R9 290X 73987

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

R9 290X 332042

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

R9 290X 140

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

R9 290X 1547

Gaming performance

Let's see how good Radeon R9 290X is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD	86
4K	49

Cost per frame, $

1080p	6.38
4K	11.20

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

30−33

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35
Battlefield 5	60−65
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	45−50
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55
Forza Horizon 4	120−130
Hitman 3	35−40
Horizon Zero Dawn	90−95
Metro Exodus	65−70
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	60−65
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35
Battlefield 5	60−65
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	45−50
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55
Forza Horizon 4	120−130
Hitman 3	35−40
Horizon Zero Dawn	90−95
Metro Exodus	65−70
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	60−65
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	137
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	45−50
Forza Horizon 4	120−130
Hitman 3	35−40
Horizon Zero Dawn	90−95
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	60−65
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

50−55

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	20−22
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	21−24
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12
Far Cry 5	21−24
Forza Horizon 4	100−110
Hitman 3	21−24
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40
Metro Exodus	35−40
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion	110−120

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16
Hitman 3	14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100
Metro Exodus	20−22
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	28

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−11
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5
Far Cry 5	10−11
Forza Horizon 4	24−27
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

16−18

Closest competitors

Radeon R9 290X's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop graphics cards.

Radeon RX 580 2048SP 103.48

Radeon RX 6400 102.7

Radeon RX 5300 102.18

Radeon R9 290X 100

Radeon RX 570 93.82

GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB 91.44

Radeon R9 285 89.98

NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon R9 290X is GeForce GTX 1650, which is faster by 6% and higher by 20 positions in our ranking.