RX Vega 3 vs R9 M280X

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Combined performance score

R9 M280X
2.10

RX Vega 3 outperforms R9 M280X by 41% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking824737
Place by popularitynot in top-10087
Value for moneyno data2.05
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)Vega (2017−2021)
GPU code nameSaturn XTVega Raven Ridge
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 February 2015 (9 years old)7 January 2018 (6 years old)
Current priceno data$371
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Technical specs

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 cores896192
Core clock speed900 MHz600 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1200 MHz
Number of transistors2,080 million4,940 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data15 Watt
Texture fill rate61.6012.13
Floating-point performance1,792 gflopsno data

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 M280X and Radeon RX Vega 3 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. 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 sizelargeno data
Bus supportNot Listedno data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16IGP
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone

Memory

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 typeNot ListedSystem Shared
Maximum RAM amount0 MBSystem Shared
Memory bus widthNot ListedSystem Shared
Memory clock speedno dataSystem Shared
Memory bandwidth96 GB/sno data
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

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 ConnectorsNo outputsNo outputs

Technologies

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

AppAcceleration-no data
Enduro-no data
FreeSync1no data
HD3D+no data
PowerTune+no data
DualGraphics1no data
TrueAudio-no data
ZeroCore+no data
Switchable graphics1no data

API support

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 (12_1)
Shader Model6.36.4
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCLNot Listed2.0
Vulkanno data1.2.131
Mantle+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 M280X 2.10
RX Vega 3 2.96
+41%

RX Vega 3 outperforms R9 M280X by 41% in our combined 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 M280X 813
RX Vega 3 1149
+41.3%

RX Vega 3 outperforms R9 M280X by 41% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

R9 M280X 9222
+69.5%
RX Vega 3 5441

R9 M280X outperforms RX Vega 3 by 70% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 M280X 4698
+173%
RX Vega 3 1724

R9 M280X outperforms RX Vega 3 by 173% 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 M280X 3498
+199%
RX Vega 3 1172

R9 M280X outperforms RX Vega 3 by 199% 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 M280X 23201
+172%
RX Vega 3 8536

R9 M280X outperforms RX Vega 3 by 172% in 3DMark Cloud Gate 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:

Full HD27
+125%
12
−125%
4K18
−33.3%
24−27
+33.3%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−250%
7
+250%
Battlefield 5 3−4
−133%
7
+133%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Far Cry 5 12
+140%
5
−140%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−400%
5
+400%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−100%
8−9
+100%
Hitman 3 3−4
−167%
8
+167%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
+33.3%
6
−33.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Battlefield 5 3−4
−133%
7−8
+133%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Far Cry 5 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−300%
4−5
+300%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−100%
8−9
+100%
Hitman 3 3−4
−100%
6−7
+100%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Metro Exodus 3−4
+50%
2
−50%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−12.5%
9−10
+12.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16
+167%
6
−167%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Battlefield 5 3−4
−133%
7−8
+133%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Far Cry 5 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−300%
4−5
+300%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−100%
8−9
+100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9
+125%
4
−125%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Hitman 3 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%
Metro Exodus 0−1 1−2
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Far Cry 5 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Hitman 3 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%

This is how R9 M280X and RX Vega 3 compete in popular games:

1080p resolution:

  • R9 M280X is 125% faster than RX Vega 3

4K resolution:

  • RX Vega 3 is 33.3% faster than R9 M280X

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

  • in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the R9 M280X is 167% faster than the RX Vega 3.
  • in Far Cry New Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX Vega 3 is 400% faster than the R9 M280X.

All in all, in popular games:

  • R9 M280X is ahead in 5 tests (10%)
  • RX Vega 3 is ahead in 37 tests (77%)
  • there's a draw in 6 tests (13%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 2.10 2.96
Recency 1 February 2015 7 January 2018
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm

The Radeon RX Vega 3 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 M280X in performance tests.


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

User ratings

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon R9 M280X
Radeon R9 M280X
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3
Radeon RX Vega 3

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Questions and comments

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