Radeon HD 6950M vs Radeon R9 M290X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon R9 M290X you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 6950M will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 M290X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon R9 M290X are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon R9 M290X are only used in laptop graphics. They have 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 HD 6950M or Radeon R9 M290X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon R9 M290X
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 100 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon R9 M290X has 100% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 M290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M290X has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 M290X - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon R9 M290X is 270 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M290X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M290X is 300 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 16−18
ultra / 1080p 5−6 10−11
QHD / 1440p 0−1 4−5
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 20−22 30−35
medium / 1080p 10−12 20−22
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 M290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 81% more, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon R9 M290X
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Blackcomb Pro Neptune
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 7 January 2014
Pipelines 960 1280
Core clock speed 580 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.84 72.00
Floating-point performance 1,113.6 gflops 2,304 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
Vulkan N/A
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 300 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Compute units 20
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