Radeon R9 290 vs Radeon RX 470

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon R9 290 and Radeon RX 470, 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 R9 290 stacks up against Radeon RX 470, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon R9 290 Radeon RX 470
Power consumption (TDP) 275 Watt 120 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin 1x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 8 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 290 has 129% more power consumption, than Radeon RX 470.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon RX 470 has 4 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 290.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon R9 290 is build with GCN 2.0 architecture, and Radeon RX 470 - with Polaris.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon R9 290 is 21 MHz higher, than Radeon RX 470.
  • Radeon R9 290 is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon RX 470 - by 14 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 290 is 34 mm longer, than Radeon RX 470.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon RX 470 is 1600 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 290.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 40−45 40−45
ultra / 1080p 27−30 27−30
QHD / 1440p 21−24 21−24
4K / 2160p 12−14 10−12
low / 720p 65−70 65−70
medium / 1080p 50−55 45−50
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 290 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 2% more, than Radeon RX 470.

Full Specs

  Radeon R9 290 Radeon RX 470
Architecture GCN 2.0 Polaris
Code name Hawaii Polaris 10 Pro
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 5 November 2013 4 August 2016
Pipelines 2560 2048
Core clock speed 947 MHz 926 MHz
Boost Clock 1206 MHz
Transistor count 6,200 million 5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 14 nm
Texture fill rate 151.5 154.4
Floating-point performance 4,849 gflops 4,940 gflops
Length 275 mm 241 mm
Memory bus width 512 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 5000 MHz 6600 MHz
Memory bandwidth 320.0 GB/s 211.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0) 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 6.3 6.4
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.0 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 545 Mh/s 495 Mh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 30 Mh/s 30 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 285 Sol/s 200 Sol/s
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