GeForce GTX 960M vs Radeon R9 390X

Place in performance ranking	206	460
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	12.62	1.49
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code name	Grenada XT	N16P-GX
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	16 June 2015 (9 years ago)	12 March 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$429	no data
Current price	$19.99 (0x MSRP)	$799

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 390X has 747% better value for money than GTX 960M.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2816	640
CUDA cores	no data	640
Core clock speed	no data	1096 MHz
Boost clock speed	1050 MHz	1202 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	184.8	47.04
Floating-point performance	5,914 gflops	1,505 gflops

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 390X and GeForce GTX 960M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	no data	medium sized
Bus support	PCIe 3.0	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	MXM-B (3.0)
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin	no data
SLI options	no data	+
Bridgeless CrossFire	1	no data

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 type	GDDR5	GDDR5
High bandwidth memory (HBM)	-	no data
Maximum RAM amount	0 MB	4 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1050 MHz	2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	384 GB/s	80 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 Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	No outputs
Eyefinity	+	no data
Number of Eyefinity displays	6	no data
VGA аnalog display support	no data	+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	no data	+
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	+	no data

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration	-	no data
CrossFire	1	no data
Enduro	-	no data
FreeSync	1	no data
HD3D	-	no data
PowerTune	+	no data
TrueAudio	+	no data
ZeroCore	-	no data
VCE	+	no data
DDMA audio	+	no data
GameStream	no data	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	no data	+
GPU Boost	no data	2.0
GameWorks	no data	+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	no data	+
Optimus	no data	+
BatteryBoost	no data	+
Ansel	no data	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	6.3	5.1
OpenGL	4.6	4.5
OpenCL	2.0	1.2
Vulkan	+	1.1.126
Mantle	+	no data
CUDA	no data	+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. 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.

R9 390X 24.44
+178%

GTX 960M 8.79

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 178% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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%

R9 390X 9439
+178%

GTX 960M 3395

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 178% in Passmark.

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%

R9 390X 17944
+240%

GTX 960M 5278

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 240% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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%

R9 390X 12389
+187%

GTX 960M 4318

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 187% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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%

R9 390X 74351
+147%

GTX 960M 30086

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 147% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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%

R9 390X 318024
+40.5%

GTX 960M 226308

Radeon R9 390X outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 41% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.

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:

900p	260−270 +174%	95 −174%
Full HD	86 +139%	36 −139%
1440p	35−40 +150%	14 −150%
4K	47 +236%	14 −236%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

40−45

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Battlefield 5	80−85	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	60−65	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Hitman 3	45−50	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Metro Exodus	80−85	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	65−70	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Battlefield 5	80−85	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	60−65	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Hitman 3	45−50	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Metro Exodus	80−85	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	65−70	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	76	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	41	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

65−70

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16	no data
Far Cry 5	40−45	no data
Forza Horizon 4	45−50	no data
Hitman 3	27−30	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55	no data
Metro Exodus	45−50	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20	no data
Hitman 3	18−20	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7	no data
Far Cry 5	12−14	no data
Forza Horizon 4	30−35	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30	no data
Metro Exodus	24−27	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12	no data