GeForce GTS 250 vs Radeon R9 390X

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 390X and GeForce GTS 250, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

R9 390X
2015
0 MB GDDR5, 275 Watt
24.47
+1489%

R9 390X outperforms GTS 250 by a whopping 1489% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking230973
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation9.980.08
Power efficiency6.130.71
ArchitectureGCN 2.0 (2013−2017)Tesla (2006−2010)
GPU code nameGrenadaG92B
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date18 June 2015 (9 years ago)4 March 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$429 $199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 390X has 12375% better value for money than GTS 250.

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 cores2816128
Core clock speedno data738 MHz
Boost clock speed1050 MHzno data
Number of transistors6,200 million754 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)275 Watt150 Watt
Maximum GPU temperatureno data105 °C
Texture fill rate184.844.93
Floating-point processing power5.914 TFLOPS0.3871 TFLOPS
ROPs6416
TMUs17664

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 2.0 x16
Length275 mm229 mm
Heightno data4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin1x 6-pin
SLI options-+
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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
High bandwidth memory (HBM)-no data
Maximum RAM amount0 MB1 GB
Memory bus width512 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1050 MHz1100 MHz
Memory bandwidth384 GB/s70.4 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 DisplayPortTwo Dual Link DVI
Multi monitor supportno data+
Eyefinity+-
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
HDMI++
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536
DisplayPort support+-
Audio input for HDMIno dataS/PDIF

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
PowerTune+-
TrueAudio+-
VCE+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1211.1 (10_0)
Shader Model6.34.0
OpenGL4.63.0
OpenCL2.01.1
Vulkan+N/A
Mantle+-
CUDA-+

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 390X 24.47
+1489%
GTS 250 1.54

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 390X 9408
+1489%
GTS 250 592

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 HD90
+1700%
5−6
−1700%
4K51
+1600%
3−4
−1600%

Cost per frame, $

1080p4.77
+735%
39.80
−735%
4K8.41
+689%
66.33
−689%
  • R9 390X has 735% lower cost per frame in 1080p
  • R9 390X has 689% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+2150%
2−3
−2150%
Cyberpunk 2077 50−55
+1567%
3−4
−1567%
Elden Ring 80−85
+1500%
5−6
−1500%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 75−80
+1775%
4−5
−1775%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+2150%
2−3
−2150%
Cyberpunk 2077 50−55
+1567%
3−4
−1567%
Forza Horizon 4 100−110
+1683%
6−7
−1683%
Metro Exodus 60−65
+1500%
4−5
−1500%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+1700%
3−4
−1700%
Valorant 95−100
+1533%
6−7
−1533%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 75−80
+1775%
4−5
−1775%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+2150%
2−3
−2150%
Cyberpunk 2077 50−55
+1567%
3−4
−1567%
Dota 2 80−85
+1580%
5−6
−1580%
Elden Ring 80−85
+1500%
5−6
−1500%
Far Cry 5 75−80
+1800%
4−5
−1800%
Fortnite 120−130
+1657%
7−8
−1657%
Forza Horizon 4 100−110
+1683%
6−7
−1683%
Grand Theft Auto V 80−85
+1580%
5−6
−1580%
Metro Exodus 60−65
+1500%
4−5
−1500%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 150−160
+1622%
9−10
−1622%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+1700%
3−4
−1700%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 78
+1850%
4−5
−1850%
Valorant 95−100
+1533%
6−7
−1533%
World of Tanks 250−260
+1500%
16−18
−1500%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 75−80
+1775%
4−5
−1775%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+2150%
2−3
−2150%
Cyberpunk 2077 50−55
+1567%
3−4
−1567%
Dota 2 80−85
+1580%
5−6
−1580%
Far Cry 5 75−80
+1800%
4−5
−1800%
Forza Horizon 4 100−110
+1683%
6−7
−1683%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 150−160
+1622%
9−10
−1622%
Valorant 95−100
+1533%
6−7
−1533%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2 40−45
+1950%
2−3
−1950%
Elden Ring 40−45
+2050%
2−3
−2050%
Grand Theft Auto V 40−45
+1950%
2−3
−1950%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+1650%
10−11
−1650%
Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
+2100%
1−2
−2100%
World of Tanks 160−170
+1520%
10−11
−1520%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50
+1533%
3−4
−1533%
Counter-Strike 2 21−24
+2000%
1−2
−2000%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+2000%
1−2
−2000%
Far Cry 5 70−75
+1675%
4−5
−1675%
Forza Horizon 4 65−70
+1525%
4−5
−1525%
Metro Exodus 55−60
+1767%
3−4
−1767%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 35−40
+1700%
2−3
−1700%
Valorant 65−70
+1550%
4−5
−1550%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 21−24
+2100%
1−2
−2100%
Dota 2 40−45
+2000%
2−3
−2000%
Elden Ring 18−20
+1800%
1−2
−1800%
Grand Theft Auto V 40−45
+2000%
2−3
−2000%
Metro Exodus 18−20
+1800%
1−2
−1800%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 75−80
+1775%
4−5
−1775%
Red Dead Redemption 2 14−16 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+2000%
2−3
−2000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27
+2400%
1−2
−2400%
Counter-Strike 2 21−24
+2100%
1−2
−2100%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9 0−1
Dota 2 40−45
+2000%
2−3
−2000%
Far Cry 5 30−35
+1500%
2−3
−1500%
Fortnite 30−33
+2900%
1−2
−2900%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
+1750%
2−3
−1750%
Valorant 30−35
+1500%
2−3
−1500%

This is how R9 390X and GTS 250 compete in popular games:

  • R9 390X is 1700% faster in 1080p
  • R9 390X is 1600% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.47 1.54
Recency 18 June 2015 4 March 2009
Chip lithography 28 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 275 Watt 150 Watt

R9 390X has a 1489% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, and a 96.4% more advanced lithography process.

GTS 250, on the other hand, has 83.3% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R9 390X is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTS 250 in performance tests.


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 390X
Radeon R9 390X
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
GeForce GTS 250

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.


4.3 264 votes

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3.5 1680 votes

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Questions & comments

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