GeForce GTX 260 vs Radeon R9 M290X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 260 and Radeon R9 M290X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 260 stacks up against Radeon R9 M290X, check out specs charts below.

Radeon R9 M290X is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon R9 M290X is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon R9 M290X here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 260 Radeon R9 M290X
Power consumption (TDP) 182 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin None
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 896 MB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
  Check Price Check Price
  • GeForce GTX 260 has 82% more power consumption, than Radeon R9 M290X.
  • GeForce GTX 260 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 260 has 892 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 M290X.
  • GeForce GTX 260 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R9 M290X - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 260 is build with Tesla 2.0 architecture, and Radeon R9 M290X - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 260 is 392 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M290X.
  • GeForce GTX 260 is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M290X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M290X is 201 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 260.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 3−4 16−18
ultra / 1080p 1−2 10−11
QHD / 1440p 0−1 4−5
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 14−16 30−35
medium / 1080p 5−6 20−22
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 M290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 233% more, than GeForce GTX 260.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 260 Radeon R9 M290X
Architecture Tesla 2.0 GCN
Code name GT200 Neptune
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 16 June 2008 7 January 2014
Pipelines 192 1280
Core clock speed 1242 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,400 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 36.9 billion/sec 72.00
Floating-point performance 476.9 gflops 2,304 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
Memory bus width 448 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 999 MHz 1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth 111.9 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 2.1 4.4
OpenCL 1.1 Not Listed
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 192
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 30 Mh/s 300 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Compute units 20
  Check Price Check Price