Radeon RX 6950 XT vs R9 M290X Crossfire

Place in performance ranking	264	13
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	22.70
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Navi / RDNA2 (2020−2022)
GPU code name	Neptune CF	Navi
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
Current price	no data	$961 (0.9x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	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

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire and Radeon RX 6950 XT 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	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	18000 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	no data	+

API compatibility

List of supported graphics 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	no data	1.3

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 M290X Crossfire 19.77

RX 6950 XT 73.26
+271%

RX 6950 XT outperforms R9 M290X Crossfire by 271% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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 M290X Crossfire 14147

RX 6950 XT 72228
+411%

RX 6950 XT outperforms R9 M290X Crossfire by 411% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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 M290X Crossfire 32792

RX 6950 XT 119918
+266%

RX 6950 XT outperforms R9 M290X Crossfire by 266% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 M290X Crossfire 10551

RX 6950 XT 59882
+468%

RX 6950 XT outperforms R9 M290X Crossfire by 468% 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 M290X Crossfire 71977

RX 6950 XT 229172
+218%

RX 6950 XT outperforms R9 M290X Crossfire by 218% 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 HD	58 −269%	214 +269%
1440p	35−40 −286%	135 +286%
4K	21−24 −310%	86 +310%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

30−35

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35	no data
Battlefield 5	65−70	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35	no data
Far Cry 5	45−50	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55	no data
Forza Horizon 4	90−95	no data
Hitman 3	35−40	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80	no data
Metro Exodus	65−70	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35	no data
Battlefield 5	65−70	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35	no data
Far Cry 5	45−50	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55	no data
Forza Horizon 4	90−95	no data
Hitman 3	35−40	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80	no data
Metro Exodus	65−70	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	50−55	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35	no data
Far Cry 5	45−50	no data
Forza Horizon 4	90−95	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	65−70	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

50−55

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	20−22	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12	no data
Far Cry 5	30−35	no data
Forza Horizon 4	35−40	no data
Hitman 3	21−24	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45	no data
Metro Exodus	35−40	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	14−16	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16	no data
Hitman 3	14−16	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5	no data
Far Cry 5	10−12	no data
Forza Horizon 4	27−30	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24	no data
Metro Exodus	18−20	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9	no data