Radeon R9 255 OEM vs R9 290X

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking289not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation4.91no data
Power efficiency4.55no data
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameHawaiiCape Verde
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date24 October 2013 (11 years ago)21 December 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$549 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores2816512
Core clock speedno data900 MHz
Boost clock speed947 MHz930 MHz
Number of transistors6,200 million1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)250 Watt65 Watt
Texture fill rate176.029.76
Floating-point processing power5.632 TFLOPS0.9523 TFLOPS
ROPs6416
TMUs17632

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).

Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin1x 6-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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GB2 GB
Memory bus width512 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz1150 MHz
Memory bandwidth320 GB/s73.6 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-
DisplayPort support+-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration+-
CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudio+-
UVD+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (11_1)
Shader Model6.35.1
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.01.2
Vulkan+1.2.131

Pros & cons summary


Recency 24 October 2013 21 December 2013
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 65 Watt

R9 290X has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

R9 255 OEM, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 month, and 284.6% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 290X and Radeon R9 255 OEM. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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AMD Radeon R9 290X
Radeon R9 290X
AMD Radeon R9 255 OEM
Radeon R9 255 OEM

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.1 454 votes

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5 1066 votes

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Questions & comments

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