Radeon HD 6990 vs Radeon R9 280X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6990 and Radeon R9 280X 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 6990 will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 280X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6990 Radeon R9 280X
Power consumption (TDP) 375 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 8-pin 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 6990 has 50% more power consumption, than Radeon R9 280X.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 280X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 280X has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6990.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is build with TeraScale 3 architecture, and Radeon R9 280X - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is 20 mm longer, than Radeon R9 280X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 14−16 35−40
ultra / 1080p 9−10 21−24
QHD / 1440p 3−4 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 30−35 60−65
medium / 1080p 18−20 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 140% more, than Radeon HD 6990.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6990 Radeon R9 280X
Architecture TeraScale 3 GCN
Code name Antilles Thaiti XTL
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 8 March 2011 8 October 2013
Pipelines 1536 2048
Core clock speed 830 MHz
Boost Clock 1000 MHz
Transistor count 2,640 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 79.68 128.0
Floating-point performance 2x 2,549.8 gflops 4,096 gflops
Length 295 mm 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 5000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 160.0 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 265 Mh/s 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 24 Mh/s 14.42 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 285 Sol/s
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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