Radeon RX 550 640SP vs R9 290X

VS

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking290not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation4.90no data
Power efficiency4.55no data
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameHawaiiBaffin
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date24 October 2013 (11 years ago)13 October 2017 (7 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 cores2816640
Core clock speedno data1019 MHz
Boost clock speed947 MHz1071 MHz
Number of transistors6,200 million3,000 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)250 Watt60 Watt
Texture fill rate176.042.84
Floating-point processing power5.632 TFLOPS1.371 TFLOPS
ROPs6416
TMUs17640

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 x8
Length275 mm145 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pinNone

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 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth320 GB/s96 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 DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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 (12_0)
Shader Model6.36.4
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan+1.2.131

Pros & cons summary


Recency 24 October 2013 13 October 2017
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 60 Watt

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

RX 550 640SP, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 316.7% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 290X and Radeon RX 550 640SP. 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 RX 550 640SP
Radeon RX 550 640SP

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.1 454 votes

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3.8 40 votes

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Questions & comments

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