Radeon R6 M255DX vs R9 M290X Crossfire

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire with Radeon R6 M255DX, including specs and performance data.

R9 M290X Crossfire
2014
2x 4 GB GDDR5, 200 Watt
19.05
+1113%

R9 M290X Crossfire outperforms R6 M255DX by a whopping 1113% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking289963
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency6.58no data
ArchitectureGCN (2012−2015)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameNeptune CFJet
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date1 March 2014 (10 years ago)7 January 2014 (10 years ago)

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 cores2560320
Core clock speed850 MHz780 MHz
Boost clock speed900 MHz855 MHz
Number of transistors2x 2800 Million690 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Wattno data
Texture fill rateno data17.10
Floating-point processing powerno data0.5472 TFLOPS
ROPsno data8
TMUsno data20

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 sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataIGP
Widthno dataIGP

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 typeGDDR5System Shared
Maximum RAM amount2x 4 GBSystem Shared
Memory bus width2x 256 BitSystem Shared
Memory clock speed4800 MHzSystem Shared
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 Connectorsno dataNo outputs
Eyefinity-+

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (FL 11_1)12 (11_1)
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-1.2.131

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 M290X Crossfire 19.05
+1113%
R6 M255DX 1.57

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 M290X Crossfire 14147
+544%
R6 M255DX 2198

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 M290X Crossfire 32792
+555%
R6 M255DX 5008

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 M290X Crossfire 10551
+847%
R6 M255DX 1115

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 M290X Crossfire 71977
+904%
R6 M255DX 7172

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 HD61
+510%
10
−510%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+675%
4−5
−675%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+633%
6−7
−633%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+1550%
2−3
−1550%
Battlefield 5 65−70
+1200%
5−6
−1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+700%
5−6
−700%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+675%
4−5
−675%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+2200%
2−3
−2200%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+1225%
4−5
−1225%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+2950%
4−5
−2950%
Hitman 3 35−40
+550%
6−7
−550%
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100
+494%
16−18
−494%
Metro Exodus 65−70
+1260%
5−6
−1260%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+1667%
3−4
−1667%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 65−70
+622%
9−10
−622%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+168%
30−35
−168%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+633%
6−7
−633%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+1550%
2−3
−1550%
Battlefield 5 65−70
+1200%
5−6
−1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+700%
5−6
−700%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+675%
4−5
−675%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+2200%
2−3
−2200%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+1225%
4−5
−1225%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+2950%
4−5
−2950%
Hitman 3 35−40
+550%
6−7
−550%
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100
+494%
16−18
−494%
Metro Exodus 65−70
+1260%
5−6
−1260%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+1667%
3−4
−1667%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 65−70
+622%
9−10
−622%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+267%
12−14
−267%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+168%
30−35
−168%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+633%
6−7
−633%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+1550%
2−3
−1550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+700%
5−6
−700%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+675%
4−5
−675%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+2200%
2−3
−2200%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+2950%
4−5
−2950%
Hitman 3 35−40
+550%
6−7
−550%
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100
+494%
16−18
−494%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 65−70
+622%
9−10
−622%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+267%
12−14
−267%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+168%
30−35
−168%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+1667%
3−4
−1667%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 35−40
+1800%
2−3
−1800%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−33
+1400%
2−3
−1400%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 20−22
+1900%
1−2
−1900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+1700%
1−2
−1700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+1050%
2−3
−1050%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+1122%
9−10
−1122%
Hitman 3 21−24
+229%
7−8
−229%
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
+700%
5−6
−700%
Metro Exodus 35−40
+1133%
3−4
−1133%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 40−45
+1233%
3−4
−1233%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
+2200%
1−2
−2200%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+1363%
8−9
−1363%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+725%
4−5
−725%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
+1800%
1−2
−1800%
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
+1400%
1−2
−1400%
Hitman 3 14−16
+1400%
1−2
−1400%
Horizon Zero Dawn 100−110
+1175%
8−9
−1175%
Metro Exodus 21−24
+2000%
1−2
−2000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20−22
+1900%
1−2
−1900%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+500%
2−3
−500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−11
+900%
1−2
−900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5 0−1
Far Cry 5 10−12 0−1
Forza Horizon 4 27−30
+1250%
2−3
−1250%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 21−24
+2100%
1−2
−2100%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+467%
3−4
−467%

This is how R9 M290X Crossfire and R6 M255DX compete in popular games:

  • R9 M290X Crossfire is 510% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the R9 M290X Crossfire is 2950% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, R9 M290X Crossfire surpassed R6 M255DX in all 49 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 19.05 1.57
Recency 1 March 2014 7 January 2014

R9 M290X Crossfire has a 1113.4% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 1 month.

The Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R6 M255DX in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire is a notebook card while Radeon R6 M255DX is a desktop 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 M290X Crossfire
Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire
AMD Radeon R6 M255DX
Radeon R6 M255DX

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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


2.7 11 votes

Rate Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire on a scale of 1 to 5:

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2.8 16 votes

Rate Radeon R6 M255DX on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.