AMD Radeon R9 290X
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
AMD Radeon R9 290X
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

General info

The general info section in the graphics cards comparison list contains information about the date of release, type, overall rating and other useful data for identifying winner between AMD Radeon R9 290X  vs  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

191
Place in performance rating
114
13.90
Value for money (0-100)
56.16
GCN
Architecture
Maxwell
Hawaii
Code name
GM204
Desktop
Type
Desktop
24 October 2013 (8 years ago)
Release date
19 September 2014 (7 years ago)
$549
Launch price (MSRP)
$549
$24 (0x MSRP)
Price now
$503 (0.9x MSRP)
reference
Design
no data
35.36
Value for money
25.30
Hawaii XT
GPU code name
GM204
Desktop
Market segment
Desktop

Technical specs

Which GPU is better between AMD Radeon R9 290X  vs  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 in the fabrication process, power consumption, and also base and turbo frequency of the GPU is the most important part containing in the graphics cards hierarchy.

2816
Pipelines
2048
947 MHz
Boost Clock
1216 MHz
6,200 million
Transistor count
5,200 million
28 nm
Manufacturing process technology
28 nm
250 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
165 Watt
176.0
Texture fill rate
144 billion/sec
5,632 gflops
Floating-point performance
4,981 gflops
no data
CUDA cores
2048
2816
Pipelines / CUDA cores
2048
947 MHz
Boost clock speed
1216 MHz
6,200 million
Number of transistors
5,200 million
250 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
165 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Let’s discuss how graphics cards AMD Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 come in different sizes (length), connector types and types of interfaces.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
275 mm
Length
10.5" (26.7 cm)
1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Supplementary power connectors
2x 6-pins
no data
SLI options
+
no data
Recommended system power (PSU)
500 Watt
PCIe 3.0
Bus support
PCI Express 3.0
no data
Height
4.376" (11.1 cm)

Memory

Graphics cards memory plays important role both in gaming and in applications for graphics. The card will perform much quicker and better, if it has more memory capacity and right memory type. What is the difference between AMD Radeon R9 290X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

GDDR5
Memory type
GDDR5
4 GB
Maximum RAM amount
4 GB
512 Bit
Memory bus width
256 Bit
1250 MHz
Memory clock speed
7.0 GB/s
320 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
224 GB/s
-
Shared memory
-

Video outputs and ports

Let’s find out the difference in extra ports between two graphics cards. What's the difference between AMD Radeon R9 290X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Display Connectors
Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
no data
G-SYNC support
+
no data
Multi monitor support
4 displays
no data
HDCP
+
no data
Maximum VGA resolution
2048x1536
no data
Audio input for HDMI
Internal
+
Eyefinity
no data
+
HDMI
+
+
DisplayPort support
no data
no data
VGA аnalog display support
+
no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support
+

Technologies

Let’s have a look what is the difference. It is worthwhile to note that NVIDIA and AMD are using different technologies.

no data
3D Vision
+
no data
GPU Boost
2.0
no data
CUDA
+
no data
GeForce Experience
+
no data
Surround
+
no data
Adaptive Vertical Sync
+
no data
Optimus
+
no data
GameStream
+
no data
GeForce ShadowPlay
+
no data
GameWorks
+
+
AppAcceleration
no data
1
CrossFire
no data
1
FreeSync
no data
+
HD3D
no data
1
LiquidVR
no data
-
PowerTune
no data
1
TressFX
no data
+
TrueAudio
no data
-
ZeroCore
no data
+
DDMA audio
no data
no data
BatteryBoost
+
no data
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder
+
-
Enduro
no data
+
UVD
no data

API support

The confrontation between the two contenders AMD Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is practically over. The hardware support (API) does not greatly affect the overall performance, it is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and other performance tests. 

DirectX® 12
DirectX
12 (12_1)
4.6
OpenGL
4.5
+
Vulkan
1.1.126
6.3
Shader Model
6.4
2.0
OpenCL
1.2
-
Mantle
no data

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for AMD Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards. The result shows how fast the game will run and whether it can be run on this computer. The different monitor resolutions – from low to 4K – are used for testing. Find out is the AMD Radeon R9 290X or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Death Stranding (2020) AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
F1 2020 (2020) AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Gears Tactics (2020) AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Doom Eternal (2020) AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Legend
5 Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
? Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.

Advantages of AMD Radeon R9 290X

Cheaper ($24 (0x MSRP) vs $503 (0.9x MSRP))

More pipelines (2816 vs 2048)

More memory bandwidth (320 GB/s vs 224 GB/s)

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

16.37% faster in synthetic tests

Less power consumption (165 Watt vs 250 Watt)

G-SYNC support

So, AMD Radeon R9 290X or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 .

AMD Radeon R9 290X versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 performance benchmarks comparison

Overall benchmark performance

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Ice Storm GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Ice Storm GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

332042 (100 %)

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 4.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 4.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Score

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Score: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Score test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

Benchmark 3DMark 11 Performance GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark 11 Performance GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Vantage Performance

Benchmark 3DMark Vantage Performance: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Vantage Performance test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Unigine Heaven 3.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 3.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 3.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Octane Render OctaneBench

Benchmark Octane Render OctaneBench: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Octane Render OctaneBench test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Passmark

Benchmark Passmark: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Passmark test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

User rating

3.9 Out of 58 Hitesti Score
4.7 Out of 222 Hitesti Score