Graphics card comparison
Radeon HD 7990 vs Radeon R9 290X
AMD
Radeon HD 7990
3072 Mb GDDR5
Released 24 Apr 2013
DESKTOP
VS
AMD
Radeon R9 290X
4096 Mb GDDR5
Released 24 Oct 2013
DESKTOP
Summary
Synthetic performance index
- Radeon HD 7990114%
- Radeon R9 290X100%
Relative performance
Gaming performance index
- Radeon HD 7990123%
- Radeon R9 290X100%
Relative performance
Reasons to consider the Radeon HD 7990
- 23% higher gaming performance.
- Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
- Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
- Supports Mantle
- Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications
Reasons to consider the Radeon R9 290X
- 85 watts lower power draw. This might be a strong point if your current power supply is not enough to handle the Radeon HD 7990 .
- Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
- Supports FreeSync
- Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
- Supports TrueAudio
- Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications
Our verdict
HWSpot recommends the Radeon HD 7990
The Radeon HD 7990 is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (5 combinations of games and resolutions).
Specifications
Core configuration
| Radeon HD 7990 | Radeon R9 290X |
| GPU Name | Malta () | Hawaii (Hawaii XT) |
| Fab Process | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Die Size | 365 mm² | 438 mm² |
| Transistors | 4,313 million | 6,200 million |
| Shaders | 2048 | 2816 |
| Compute Units | 32 | 44 |
| Core clock | 950 MHz | 1000 MHz |
| ROPs | 32 | 64 |
| TMUs | 128 | 176 |
Memory configuration
| Radeon HD 7990 | Radeon R9 290X |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 384 bit x2 | 512 bit |
| Memory Speed | 1500 MHz
6000 MHz effective | 1250 MHz
5000 MHz effective |
| Memory Size | 3072 Mb | 4096 Mb |
Additional details
| Radeon HD 7990 | Radeon R9 290X |
| TDP | 375 watts | 290 watts |
| Release Date | 24 Apr 2013 | 24 Oct 2013 |
Raw performance comparison
Pixel Rate
- Radeon HD 799060.80 GP/s
- Radeon R9 290X64.00 GP/s
GigaPixels - higher is better
Texel Rate
- Radeon HD 7990244.00 GT/s
- Radeon R9 290X176.00 GT/s
GigaTexels - higher is better
Memory bandwidth
- Radeon HD 7990576.00 GB/s
- Radeon R9 290X320.00 GB/s
GB/s - higher is better
Single precision performance
- Radeon HD 79907782.00 GFLOPs
- Radeon R9 290X5632.00 GFLOPs
GFLOPs - higher is better
Synthetic benchmarks
3DMark 11
- Radeon HD 799018530
- Radeon R9 290X16210
Points (higher is better)
Game benchmarks
Battlefield 4
DX11, Ultra Quality,2x MSAA,16x AF, HBAO
- Radeon HD 7990128
- Radeon R9 290X92
FPS (higher is better)
Bioshock Infinite
DX11, Ultra Quality,DDOD, FX AA
- Radeon HD 7990122
- Radeon R9 290X95
FPS (higher is better)
Crysis 3
DX11,Very High Quality, FXAA
- Radeon HD 799079
- Radeon R9 290X55
FPS (higher is better)
Hitman Absolution
DX11, High Quality, 2x MSAA, 16x AF
- Radeon HD 799079
- Radeon R9 290X80
FPS (higher is better)
Metro Last Light
DX11, AAA standard, 16xAF, Motion Blur normal, Tesselation normal
- Radeon HD 799071
- Radeon R9 290X67
FPS (higher is better)