Radeon R9 290X vs Radeon RX 6700 XT

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 6700 XT, which makes use of a 7 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 2321 MHz. The GDDR6 memory runs at a frequency of 2000 MHz on this particular card. It features 2560 SPUs as well as 160 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 6700 XT		230 Watts
Radeon R9 290X		300 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon RX 6700 XT should perform much faster than the Radeon R9 290X overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 6700 XT		393216 MB/sec
Radeon R9 290X		320000 MB/sec
	Difference: 73216 (23%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is much (approximately 164%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon R9 290X. (explain)

Radeon RX 6700 XT		371360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R9 290X		140800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 230560 (164%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon RX 6700 XT is superior to the Radeon R9 290X, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon RX 6700 XT		148544 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 290X		51200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 97344 (190%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.