GeForce GTX 980 vs Radeon R9 290

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 290, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this model. It features 2560 SPUs as well as 160 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These 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

GeForce GTX 980		13552 points
Radeon R9 290		9876 points
	Difference: 3676 (37%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

Radeon R9 290		29 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 980		20 Mh/s
	Difference: 9 (45%)

Zcash Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 980		408 Sol/s
Radeon R9 290		283 Sol/s
	Difference: 125 (44%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
Radeon R9 290		300 Watts
	Difference: 135 Watts (82%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 290 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 980 in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (43%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 should be a little bit (approximately 13%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon R9 290. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R9 290		128000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16128 (13%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is superior to the Radeon R9 290, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 290		51200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20864 (41%)

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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.