Radeon R9 290X: specs and benchmarks
Aggregate performance score
Radeon R9 290X provides acceptable gaming and benchmark performance at 19.23% of a leader's which is GeForce RTX 4090.
Summary
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 architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 5 GHz are supplied, and together with 512 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s.
Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 275 mm. One 6-pin and one 8-pin connectors are 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 performance ranking | 273 | |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 10.11 | |
| Architecture | GCN (2011−2017) | |
| GPU code name | Hawaii XT | |
| Market segment | Desktop | |
| Release date | 24 October 2013 (10 years ago) | |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $549 |
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 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT) |
| Core clock speed | 1000 MHz | of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT) |
| Number of transistors | 6,200 million | of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile) |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | of 4 (H100 PCIe) |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem) |
| Texture fill rate | 176.0 | of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB) |
| Floating-point performance | 5,632 gflops | of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo) |
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).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | |
| Length | 275 mm | |
| Width | 2-slot | |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 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 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X) |
| Memory bus width | 512 Bit | of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X) |
| Memory clock speed | 5000 MHz | of 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER) |
| Memory bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | of 3276 (Aldebaran) |
| 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 | + |
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 | + |
API compatibility
APIs supported by Radeon R9 290X, sometimes including their particular versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | |
| Shader Model | 6.3 | |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 |
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 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.
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%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
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%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 14%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 8%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 4%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 1%
Send your test results of Radeon R9 290X.
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 | 91 | |
| 4K | 54 |
FPS performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 30−33 |
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 35−40 | |
| 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 | 85−90 | |
| Hitman 3 | 35−40 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 75−80 | |
| Metro Exodus | 60−65 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 50−55 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 60−65 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60 |
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 35−40 | |
| 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 | 85−90 | |
| Hitman 3 | 35−40 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 75−80 | |
| Metro Exodus | 60−65 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 50−55 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 60−65 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 75 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60 |
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 35−40 | |
| 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 | 85−90 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 75−80 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 60−65 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 29 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60 |
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 50−55 |
1440p
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 35−40 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 35−40 |
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 20−22 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 16−18 | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 10−12 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 30−35 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 35−40 | |
| 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 | 12−14 |
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 | 18−20 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 14−16 | |
| 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 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20 | |
| Metro Exodus | 20−22 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 8−9 |
4K
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 16−18 |
NVIDIA equivalent
According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon R9 290X is T1000 8 GB, which is faster by 3% and higher by 8 positions in our ranking.
Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon R9 290X:
Similar GPUs
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Recommended processors
These processors are most commonly used with Radeon R9 290X according to our statistics.
