Radeon R9 390 8G vs Radeon R9 M290X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M290X, which comes with a core clock frequency of 850 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1200 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M290X		100 Watts
Radeon R9 390 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 175 Watts (175%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 390 8G is 150% faster than the Radeon R9 M290X overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		384000 MB/sec
Radeon R9 M290X		153600 MB/sec
	Difference: 230400 (150%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be a lot (about 135%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon R9 M290X. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		160000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R9 M290X		68000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 92000 (135%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 390 8G is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		64000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 M290X		27200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 36800 (135%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.