Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire vs R9 380

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 380 with Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire, including specs and performance data.

R9 380
2015
4 GB GDDR5, 190 Watt
15.89

R9 M290X Crossfire outperforms R9 380 by a significant 20% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking341294
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation9.20no data
Power efficiency5.776.58
ArchitectureGCN 3.0 (2014−2019)GCN (2012−2015)
GPU code nameAntiguaNeptune CF
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date18 June 2015 (9 years ago)1 March 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 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 cores17922560
Compute units28no data
Core clock speedno data850 MHz
Boost clock speed970 MHz900 MHz
Number of transistors5,000 million2x 2800 Million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)190 Watt200 Watt
Texture fill rate108.6no data
Floating-point processing power3.476 TFLOPSno data
ROPs32no data
TMUs112no data

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).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16no data
Length221 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Form factorfull height / full length / dual slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2 x 6-pinno data
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

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
High bandwidth memory (HBM)-no data
Maximum RAM amount4 GB2x 4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit2x 256 Bit
Memory clock speed970 MHz4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth182.4 GB/sno data
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 data
Eyefinity+-
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
HDMI+-
DisplayPort support+-

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-
FRTC+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
PowerTune+-
TrueAudio+-
ZeroCore+-
VCE+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (FL 11_1)
Shader Model6.3no data
OpenGL4.5no data
OpenCL2.0no data
Vulkan+-
Mantle+-

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 380 15.89
R9 M290X Crossfire 19.08
+20.1%

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 380 12191
R9 M290X Crossfire 14147
+16%

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 380 29722
R9 M290X Crossfire 32792
+10.3%

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 380 8218
R9 M290X Crossfire 10551
+28.4%

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 380 50723
R9 M290X Crossfire 71977
+41.9%

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 HD65
+4.8%
62
−4.8%
4K27
−11.1%
30−35
+11.1%

Cost per frame, $

1080p3.06no data
4K7.37no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2 27−30
−21.4%
30−35
+21.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
−22.6%
35−40
+22.6%
Elden Ring 45−50
−22.4%
60−65
+22.4%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 50−55
−19.6%
60−65
+19.6%
Counter-Strike 2 27−30
−21.4%
30−35
+21.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
−22.6%
35−40
+22.6%
Forza Horizon 4 65−70
−23.1%
80−85
+23.1%
Metro Exodus 40−45
−18.6%
50−55
+18.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
−15.8%
40−45
+15.8%
Valorant 60−65
−20.3%
75−80
+20.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 50−55
−19.6%
60−65
+19.6%
Counter-Strike 2 27−30
−21.4%
30−35
+21.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
−22.6%
35−40
+22.6%
Dota 2 55−60
−19.3%
65−70
+19.3%
Elden Ring 45−50
−22.4%
60−65
+22.4%
Far Cry 5 55−60
−14%
65−70
+14%
Fortnite 85−90
−15.9%
100−110
+15.9%
Forza Horizon 4 65−70
−23.1%
80−85
+23.1%
Grand Theft Auto V 55−60
−17.5%
65−70
+17.5%
Metro Exodus 40−45
−18.6%
50−55
+18.6%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 110−120
−15%
130−140
+15%
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
−15.8%
40−45
+15.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 52
−15.4%
60−65
+15.4%
Valorant 60−65
−20.3%
75−80
+20.3%
World of Tanks 200−210
−11.9%
220−230
+11.9%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 50−55
−19.6%
60−65
+19.6%
Counter-Strike 2 27−30
−21.4%
30−35
+21.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
−22.6%
35−40
+22.6%
Dota 2 55−60
−19.3%
65−70
+19.3%
Far Cry 5 55−60
−14%
65−70
+14%
Forza Horizon 4 65−70
−23.1%
80−85
+23.1%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 110−120
−15%
130−140
+15%
Valorant 60−65
−20.3%
75−80
+20.3%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2 21−24
−30.4%
30−33
+30.4%
Elden Ring 24−27
−24%
30−35
+24%
Grand Theft Auto V 24−27
−25%
30−33
+25%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 140−150
−15%
160−170
+15%
Red Dead Redemption 2 14−16
−21.4%
16−18
+21.4%
World of Tanks 110−120
−17.1%
130−140
+17.1%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 30−35
−21.9%
35−40
+21.9%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
−25%
14−16
+25%
Far Cry 5 35−40
−28.2%
50−55
+28.2%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
−25.6%
45−50
+25.6%
Metro Exodus 35−40
−22.9%
40−45
+22.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20−22
−30%
24−27
+30%
Valorant 40−45
−22.5%
45−50
+22.5%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 10−12
−36.4%
14−16
+36.4%
Dota 2 27−30
−18.5%
30−35
+18.5%
Elden Ring 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Grand Theft Auto V 27−30
−18.5%
30−35
+18.5%
Metro Exodus 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
−21.3%
55−60
+21.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−11
−20%
12−14
+20%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 27−30
−18.5%
30−35
+18.5%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−26.7%
18−20
+26.7%
Counter-Strike 2 10−12
−36.4%
14−16
+36.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−50%
6−7
+50%
Dota 2 27−30
−18.5%
30−35
+18.5%
Far Cry 5 20−22
−20%
24−27
+20%
Fortnite 18−20
−27.8%
21−24
+27.8%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
−21.7%
27−30
+21.7%
Valorant 18−20
−22.2%
21−24
+22.2%

This is how R9 380 and R9 M290X Crossfire compete in popular games:

  • R9 380 is 5% faster in 1080p
  • R9 M290X Crossfire is 11% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the R9 M290X Crossfire is 50% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, R9 M290X Crossfire surpassed R9 380 in all 63 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 15.89 19.08
Recency 18 June 2015 1 March 2014
Power consumption (TDP) 190 Watt 200 Watt

R9 380 has an age advantage of 1 year, and 5.3% lower power consumption.

R9 M290X Crossfire, on the other hand, has a 20.1% higher aggregate performance score.

The Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 380 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 380 is a desktop card while Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire is a notebook one.


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 380
Radeon R9 380
AMD Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire
Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire

Other comparisons

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Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4.1 821 vote

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2.7 11 votes

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Questions & comments

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