Radeon HD 7990 vs Radeon R9 M290X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7990 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 Radeon HD 7990 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

  Radeon HD 7990 Radeon R9 M290X
Power consumption (TDP) 375 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 8-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7990 has 275% more power consumption, than Radeon R9 M290X.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon R9 M290X has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7990.
  • Radeon HD 7990 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R9 M290X - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7990 is build with GCN 1.0 architecture, and Radeon R9 M290X - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7990 is 100 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M290X.
  • Radeon HD 7990 and Radeon R9 M290X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7990 is 4800 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M290X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 16−18
ultra / 1080p 21−24 10−11
QHD / 1440p 16−18 4−5
4K / 2160p 10−11 4−5
low / 720p 60−65 30−35
medium / 1080p 40−45 20−22
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7990 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 113% more, than Radeon R9 M290X.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7990 Radeon R9 M290X
Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN
Code name Malta Neptune
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 24 April 2013 7 January 2014
Pipelines 2048 1280
Core clock speed 950 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 1000 MHz 900 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 128.0 72.00
Floating-point performance 2x 4,096 gflops 2,304 gflops
Length 307 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 6000 MHz 1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth 288.0 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
Vulkan 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 459 Mh/s 300 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 44 Mh/s
Compute units 20
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