Compare any two graphics cards:
GeForce GTX 970 vs Radeon R9 290X
IntroThe GeForce GTX 970 makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1050 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this card. It features 1664 SPUs along with 104 Texture Address Units and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 290X, which has a clock speed of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1250 MHz. It also features a 512-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2816 SPUs, 176 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.
Display Graphs
BenchmarksThese are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
Zcash Mining Hash Rate
Ethereum Mining Hash Rate
Power Usage and Theoretical BenchmarksPower Consumption (Max TDP)
Memory BandwidthAs far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 290X should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce GTX 970 overall. (explain)
Texel RateThe Radeon R9 290X will be a lot (about 29%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 970. (explain)
Pixel RateThe GeForce GTX 970 will be much (more or less 31%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon R9 290X, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)
Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit. Price Comparison
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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though. Specifications
Display Specifications
Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions. Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second. Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
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Comments
13 Responses to “GeForce GTX 970 vs Radeon R9 290X”is the r9 290x a better card than the 970
yes, the 290x performs better than a 780, quite a bit in some situations. the 970, with some overclocking can get 780 performance. even then the 780 is a beast of a card. if you are looking at buying either of the cards, i would go with the 290x if you arent planning on playing above 1080p or multi-monitor. if planning on playing at higher resolutions i would go with the 970 because ONLY THE NEW MAXWELL BASED GPUS are more efficient and faster at displaying more pixels. that would be the only reason to buy the 970 over the 290x
Wow dude you really know about this, but do you say GTX 970 will keep his performance? remember just released in september of this year. Anyways i'm going for the r9 290x as you say...
So buying the r9290x was a mistake right? The 970
No in new benchmarks show that the R9 290X takes off at 4K resolution versus the GTX 970 due to the issue with the 3.5GB vram. At 1080p the GTX 970 does great but if you push it hard with games that re heavy modded you will notice issues with it. The r9 290X will give you room to play at 4k. Base on my test using the EVGA GTX 970 SSC Edition and the MSI R9 290X Ligghtning Edition.
Only down side is that the 290X uses alot more power than the 970. Also the new drivers coming up should provide an additional 5% performance to all 290X cards. I think NVIDIA is not going to support the 970 for to long due to the issues with the 3.5GB Memory that is a physical issue not drivers related.
Good Luck!
IMO R9 290X is a better card. I will explain why. R9 290X can use all 4GB of its VRAM. While GTX 970 can only use 3.5GB and if you go above it starts stuttering. At 1080P GTX 970 might be 2% faster but @ 1440P - 4K R9 290X starts gaining on a GTX 970.
I have owned X2 R9 290X's in Crossfire for a year now. I can honestly say, it's a pretty solid card. This whole year two of my 290X's have been driving @ 1440P 60+ FPS in "most" games.
The problem with GTX 970 is: Nvidia itself admitted, both segments can't be used at the same time, so you cannot therefore add the two bandwidth numbers. When any game that uses large texture files (Skyrim mods, etc) will start to approach and exceed the prioritized 3.5GB threshold. As soon as the VRAM usage exceeds that 3.5GB, the remaining 512MB is 1/8th the speed of the [primary segment <---- 196 GB/s]
So with 512MB (28 GB/s) of very slow memory compared to the rest, that will definitely be a performance impact. If you are running near 4GB.
*Actual GTX 970 Specs*
ROPs - 56
L2 Cache - 1.75 MB
196 GB/s (3.5 GB) & 28 GB/s (512MB).
so im playing on a 1080p monitor which one should i go for a 970 or 290x?
In over clocking tests I have seen, the Strix 970 performs equally or better than the R9.
You can get boost speed up to 1450+ MHz and memory up to 7.8GHz.
It's also quieter and uses much less power, do you get good performance without needing a huge power supply and cooling.
4k monitors are still expensive, so if you didn't already have one I'd choose the ASUS Strix 970. It's big... But a nice looking card. Very easy to install.
I am planning on buying a gpu, MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V, but then I came across the 290x. If I am only going to be using a single 1080p monitor, what would be better?
Brendan is talking one sided rubbish. Yes you can OC a 970 but you can also OC a 290X so point is moot.
@Woop
The 970GTX is slightly worse in real world gaming than the 290X, especially in newer titles where the drivers aren't as tuned as AMD's. WIll you notice in game? Probably not. Both are great cards, i'd probably go whichever is cheapest for you and be happy.
Am i the only one realising r9 is %30 more expensive than the nvdia ? And i dont think it %30 price worths %1-2 performance i would definately choose nvidia over amd
LOL! Kaan, you are right!
i DEFINATELY will buy a EVGA 970 FTW+
Think i can join this debate,
I've used MSI GTX 970 ME(Limited Edition), and gotta say it's a pretty solid card.
But when i play AC: Syndicate with ULTRA SETTINGS in ALL SETTINGS.
It pushes the VRAM Above 4GB in 1080P.
It LAGS like crazy! so yes, the 3,5GB eventually WILL make your card becomes IRRELEVANT sooner as i would imagine (TBH, i know the issues about 3,5GB but coninues to ignoring it as i only play 1080p).
I Sold the card, which luckily i got 20$ Profit. and bought newly used Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X.
YES, i know it runs much hotter (10 C More), but performance wise and the specs are really future proofing, Couldn't be happier