Radeon HD 7790 vs Radeon R9 290X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7790 and Radeon R9 290X, 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 7790 stacks up against Radeon R9 290X, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7790 Radeon R9 290X
Power consumption (TDP) 85 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 290X has 194% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7790.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon R9 290X has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7790.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 7790 is build with GCN 2.0 architecture, and Radeon R9 290X - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 7790 and Radeon R9 290X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 290X is 92 mm longer, than Radeon HD 7790.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7790 is 4750 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 290X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 35−40
ultra / 1080p 9−10 24−27
QHD / 1440p 4−5 18−20
4K / 2160p 4−5 10−11
low / 720p 30−35 60−65
medium / 1080p 20−22 45−50
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 135% more, than Radeon HD 7790.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7790 Radeon R9 290X
Architecture GCN 2.0 GCN
Code name Bonaire Hawaii XT
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 March 2013 24 October 2013
Pipelines 896 2816
Core clock speed 1000 MHz
Boost Clock 947 MHz
Transistor count 2,080 million 6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 56.00 176.0
Floating-point performance 1,792 gflops 5,632 gflops
Length 183 mm 275 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 512 Bit
Memory clock speed 6000 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 96 GB/s 320 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 6.3 6.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.0 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131 +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.76 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 218 Mh/s 623 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 5.2 Mh/s 25.75 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 350 Sol/s
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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