Radeon RX 6950 XT vs R9 390X

Place in the ranking	225	15
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	9.99	27.11
Power efficiency	6.17	15.14
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Grenada	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	18 June 2015 (9 years ago)	10 May 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$429	$1,099

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6950 XT has 171% better value for money than R9 390X.

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 cores	2816	5120
Core clock speed	no data	1925 MHz
Boost clock speed	1050 MHz	2324 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	335 Watt
Texture fill rate	184.8	743.7
Floating-point processing power	5.914 TFLOPS	23.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	128
TMUs	176	320
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	80

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 support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	275 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin	2x 8-pin
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 type	GDDR5	GDDR6
High bandwidth memory (HBM)	-	no data
Maximum RAM amount	0 MB	16 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1050 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	384 GB/s	576.0 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	1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
Eyefinity	+	-
Number of Eyefinity displays	6	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	+	-

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.

DirectX	DirectX® 12	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.3	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.1
Vulkan	+	1.3
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 390X 24.41

RX 6950 XT 72.97
+199%

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 9416

RX 6950 XT 28151
+199%

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 390X 17944

RX 6950 XT 72228
+303%

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 390X 35807

RX 6950 XT 119918
+235%

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 390X 12389

RX 6950 XT 59882
+383%

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 390X 74351

RX 6950 XT 229172
+208%

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.

R9 390X 318024

RX 6950 XT 497297
+56.4%

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 HD	95 −134%	222 +134%
1440p	45−50 −200%	135 +200%
4K	48 −81.3%	87 +81.3%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	4.52	4.95
1440p	9.53	8.14
4K	8.94	12.63

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

40−45

−303%

161
+303%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −180%	150−160 +180%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45 −214%	130−140 +214%
Battlefield 5	80−85 −194%	230−240 +194%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −140%	120−130 +140%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 −258%	143 +258%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −109%	110−120 +109%
Far Cry New Dawn	60−65 −183%	180−190 +183%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −68.1%	240−250 +68.1%
Hitman 3	45−50 −163%	120−130 +163%
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120 −134%	260−270 +134%
Metro Exodus	80−85 −84.5%	150−160 +84.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2	60−65 −92.2%	120−130 +92.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85 −277%	300−350 +277%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 −50%	150−160 +50%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −180%	150−160 +180%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45 −214%	130−140 +214%
Battlefield 5	80−85 −194%	230−240 +194%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −140%	120−130 +140%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 −220%	128 +220%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −109%	110−120 +109%
Far Cry New Dawn	60−65 −183%	180−190 +183%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −68.1%	240−250 +68.1%
Hitman 3	45−50 −163%	120−130 +163%
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120 −134%	260−270 +134%
Metro Exodus	80−85 −84.5%	150−160 +84.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2	60−65 −92.2%	120−130 +92.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85 −433%	442 +433%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	108 −47.2%	150−160 +47.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 −50%	150−160 +50%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −180%	150−160 +180%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45 −214%	130−140 +214%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 −140%	120−130 +140%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 −205%	122 +205%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −109%	110−120 +109%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −68.1%	240−250 +68.1%
Hitman 3	45−50 −163%	120−130 +163%
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120 −181%	318 +181%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80−85 −377%	396 +377%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	41 −427%	216 +427%
Watch Dogs: Legion	100−110 −4.9%	107 +4.9%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

60−65

−92.2%

120−130
+92.2%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50 −261%	160−170 +261%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −203%	110−120 +203%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −248%	85−90 +248%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −292%	90−95 +292%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −193%	80−85 +193%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 −520%	93 +520%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −200%	80−85 +200%
Forza Horizon 4	140−150 −93.6%	270−280 +93.6%
Hitman 3	27−30 −269%	100−110 +269%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 −410%	255 +410%
Metro Exodus	45−50 −187%	132 +187%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −455%	294 +455%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 −350%	130−140 +350%
Watch Dogs: Legion	130−140 −72.7%	240−250 +72.7%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45

−188%

110−120
+188%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 −267%	85−90 +267%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 −263%	65−70 +263%
Hitman 3	18−20 −242%	65−70 +242%
Horizon Zero Dawn	120−130 −79.4%	220−230 +79.4%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −325%	110−120 +325%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29 −397%	144 +397%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −307%	60−65 +307%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 −354%	55−60 +354%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 −271%	50−55 +271%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −667%	46 +667%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −285%	50−55 +285%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−33 −473%	172 +473%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12 −491%	65 +491%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24

−290%

80−85
+290%

This is how R9 390X and RX 6950 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6950 XT is 134% faster in 1080p
RX 6950 XT is 200% faster in 1440p
RX 6950 XT is 81% 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 RX 6950 XT is 667% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RX 6950 XT surpassed R9 390X in all 72 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	24.41	72.97
Recency	18 June 2015	10 May 2022
Chip lithography	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	275 Watt	335 Watt

R9 390X has 21.8% lower power consumption.

RX 6950 XT, on the other hand, has a 198.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 390X in performance tests.

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