Radeon RX 6950 XT vs R9 M290X Crossfire

Place in the ranking	293	17
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	27.14
Power efficiency	6.53	14.94
Architecture	GCN (2012−2015)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Neptune CF	Navi 21
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 March 2014 (10 years ago)	10 May 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,099

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	2560	5120
Core clock speed	850 MHz	1925 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	2324 MHz
Number of transistors	2x 2800 Million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	335 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	743.7
Floating-point processing power	no data	23.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	128
TMUs	no data	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).

Laptop size	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	no data	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	2x 8-pin

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
Maximum RAM amount	2x 4 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	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	no data	1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (FL 11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.5
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	2.1
Vulkan	-	1.3

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 19.06

RX 6950 XT 72.99
+283%

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

RX 6950 XT 72228
+411%

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

RX 6950 XT 119918
+266%

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

RX 6950 XT 59882
+468%

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

RX 6950 XT 229172
+218%

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	64 −244%	220 +244%
1440p	30−35 −347%	134 +347%
4K	21−24 −295%	83 +295%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	5.00
1440p	no data	8.20
4K	no data	13.24

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

30−35

−419%

161
+419%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45 −243%	150−160 +243%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%
Battlefield 5	65−70 −262%	230−240 +262%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45 −200%	120−130 +200%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −361%	143 +361%
Far Cry 5	45−50 −154%	110−120 +154%
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55 −242%	180−190 +242%
Forza Horizon 4	120−130 −98.4%	240−250 +98.4%
Hitman 3	35−40 −231%	120−130 +231%
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100 −178%	260−270 +178%
Metro Exodus	65−70 −128%	150−160 +128%
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55 −132%	120−130 +132%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70 −382%	300−350 +382%
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95 −68.1%	150−160 +68.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45 −243%	150−160 +243%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%
Battlefield 5	65−70 −262%	230−240 +262%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45 −200%	120−130 +200%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −313%	128 +313%
Far Cry 5	45−50 −154%	110−120 +154%
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55 −242%	180−190 +242%
Forza Horizon 4	120−130 −98.4%	240−250 +98.4%
Hitman 3	35−40 −231%	120−130 +231%
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100 −178%	260−270 +178%
Metro Exodus	65−70 −128%	150−160 +128%
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55 −132%	120−130 +132%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70 −580%	442 +580%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 −261%	150−160 +261%
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95 −68.1%	150−160 +68.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45 −243%	150−160 +243%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45 −200%	120−130 +200%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −294%	122 +294%
Far Cry 5	45−50 −154%	110−120 +154%
Forza Horizon 4	120−130 −98.4%	240−250 +98.4%
Hitman 3	35−40 −231%	120−130 +231%
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100 −235%	318 +235%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70 −509%	396 +509%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 −391%	216 +391%
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95 −17.6%	107 +17.6%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

50−55

−132%

120−130
+132%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40 −337%	160−170 +337%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−33 −273%	110−120 +273%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	20−22 −335%	85−90 +335%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20 −422%	90−95 +422%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	21−24 −273%	80−85 +273%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −745%	93 +745%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −265%	80−85 +265%
Forza Horizon 4	110−120 −146%	270−280 +146%
Hitman 3	21−24 −365%	100−110 +365%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −538%	255 +538%
Metro Exodus	35−40 −257%	132 +257%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −635%	294 +635%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 −487%	130−140 +487%
Watch Dogs: Legion	110−120 −105%	240−250 +105%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

−258%

110−120
+258%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20 −363%	85−90 +363%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −360%	65−70 +360%
Hitman 3	14−16 −333%	65−70 +333%
Horizon Zero Dawn	100−110 −122%	220−230 +122%
Metro Exodus	21−24 −467%	110−120 +467%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22 −620%	144 +620%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −408%	60−65 +408%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11 −490%	55−60 +490%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −373%	50−55 +373%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1050%	46 +1050%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Forza Horizon 4	27−30 −389%	130−140 +389%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 −682%	172 +682%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −713%	65 +713%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

16−18

−382%

80−85
+382%

This is how R9 M290X Crossfire and RX 6950 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6950 XT is 244% faster in 1080p
RX 6950 XT is 347% faster in 1440p
RX 6950 XT is 295% 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 1050% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RX 6950 XT surpassed R9 M290X Crossfire in all 72 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	19.06	72.99
Recency	1 March 2014	10 May 2022
Chip lithography	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	335 Watt

R9 M290X Crossfire has 67.5% lower power consumption.

RX 6950 XT, on the other hand, has a 282.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire is a notebook card while Radeon RX 6950 XT is a desktop one.

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