PC Part DB: Build Smarter: Compare PC part benchmarks & specsPC PART DB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER vs AMD Radeon R9 290X

NVIDIA
VS
AMD
Performance
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER36% better
21,98221% of 104,937
Radeon R9 290X
16,167.515% of 104,937

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has 36% better performance than the Radeon R9 290X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER226% better
95.9959% of 161.45
Radeon R9 290X
29.4518% of 161.45

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has 226% better value for the money than the Radeon R9 290X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Shop GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
Shop Radeon R9 290X
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Summary

#

About the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GPU

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a desktop graphics card by NVIDIA. It launched in Q4 2019 with a suggested retail price of $229. Its TU116 chip that powers the GPU uses the Turing architecture and is fabricated on the 12 nm process.

This GPU is paired with 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Its 1,750 MHz memory clock and 192 bit interface gives it a bandwidth of 336 Gb/s. This impacts how much data it can store, and how fast it transfers the data to and from memory.

The GTX 1660 SUPER is a dual slot graphics card, taking up 2 PCIe slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4a display ports. This desktop card has a TDP of 125 W. NVIDIA recommends using a power supply of at least 300 W with this card. A power supply lower than this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has the 106th highest 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 540 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 20.95% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 21,982 score and $229 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 95.99. This is the 19th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

About the AMD Radeon R9 290X GPU

The Radeon R9 290X is an end-of-life desktop graphics card by AMD. It launched in Q4 2013 with a suggested retail price of $549. Its Hawaii chip that powers the GPU uses the GCN 2.0 architecture and is fabricated on the 28 nm process.

This GPU is paired with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. Its 1,250 MHz memory clock and 512 bit interface gives it a bandwidth of 320 Gb/s. This impacts how much data it can store, and how fast it transfers the data to and from memory.

The R9 290X is a dual slot graphics card, taking up 2 PCIe slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2 display ports. This desktop card has a TDP of 290 W. AMD recommends using a power supply of at least 600 W with this card. A power supply lower than this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

The Radeon R9 290X has the 135th highest 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 540 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 15.41% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 16,167.5 score and $549 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 29.45. This is the 78th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

General Info

General overview of the GPU, including details like its manufacturer, release date, launch price, and current production status.

InfoGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureTuringGCN 2.0
Market SegmentDesktopDesktop
Release DateQ4 2019Q4 2013
Launch Price (MSRP)$229$549
Production StatusActiveEnd-of-life
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

#

Select a game to compare FPS metrics

Display FPS for F1 24
F1 24
Display FPS for Senua's Saga Hellblade 2
Senua's Saga Hellblade 2
Display FPS for Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima
Display FPS for Dragon's Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2
Display FPS for Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West
Display FPS for Alone in the Dark (2024)
Alone in the Dark (2024)
Display FPS for Sons of the Forest
Sons of the Forest
More games to choose from
More Games

FPS Benchmarks

This table showcases the average frame rate (FPS) achieved both GPUs in at various resolutions. Frame rate is a crucial indicator of how smoothly the GPU can run the game. A higher FPS generally translates to a smoother gameplay experience.

  • Frames Per Second
FPS data for F1 24
F1 24
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
Low - 1080p
175 FPS
--
Medium - 1080p
145 FPS
--
High - 1080p
107 FPS
--
Ultra - 1080p
--
--
QHD - 1440p
--
--
4K UHD - 2160p
--
--
FPS Source: Notebookcheck

Compare Frames Per Second (FPS)

The average frame rate (FPS) in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, higher FPS results in a smoother gameplay experience.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER orRadeon R9 290X

Compare Cost Per Frame

The average cost per frame in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. Generally, a lower cost per frame implies better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER orRadeon R9 290X

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER36% better
21,98221% of 104,937
Radeon R9 290X
16,167.515% of 104,937

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has 36% better performance than the Radeon R9 290X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is ranked 106th with a score of 21,982, and the Radeon R9 290X is ranked 135th with a score of 16,167.5.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER226% better
95.9959% of 161.45
Radeon R9 290X
29.4518% of 161.45

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has 226% better value for the money than the Radeon R9 290X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is ranked 19th with a performance per dollar of 95.99, and the Radeon R9 290X is ranked 78th with a performance per dollar of 29.45.

Relative Performance

The average score in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER or
GPUBenchmark Performance
Radeon RX 6500 XT22,954+4%
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti22,891.5+4%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER21,982
GeForce GTX 166021,131-4%
Radeon RX 5500 XT19,499-11%
GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB)17,401-21%
Radeon R9 Nano17,282-21%
Radeon R9 290X16,167.5-26%
GeForce GTX 97016,033-27%
GeForce GTX 780 Ti15,619-29%

Relative Value For Money

The average performance per dollar in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. A higher score implies a better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER or
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
Radeon RX 660096.58+1%
GeForce GTX 166096.49+1%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER95.99
Radeon RX 570090.17-6%
Radeon RX 5700 XT89.78-6%
GeForce GTX 76031.98-67%
Radeon R9 FURY31.95-67%
Radeon R9 290X29.45-69%
GeForce GTX 660 Ti28.14-71%
Radeon R9 Nano26.63-72%

Benchmark Scores

This table showcases the average performance scores achieved by both GPUs across industry-standard benchmark tests. These scores provide a valuable insight into overall performance. Powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

  • Popular
BenchmarkGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
5,975
(+49.26%)
4,003
3DMark Time Spy Score
6,545.5
(+59.1%)
4,114
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
93,241
(+26.02%)
73,987
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
15,828.5
(+35.09%)
11,717
3DMark Night Raid Graphics
72,578.5
--
3DMark 11 Performance Score
22,583
(+68.34%)
13,415
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
--
142
PassMark G3D Mark
12,773
(+47.87%)
8,638
PassMark G2D Mark
815
(+5.71%)
771
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
--
140
Unigine Heaven 3.0 OpenGL
--
111
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

#

Graphics Processor

General information about the graphics processing unit like their architecture, manufacturing process size, and transistor count. Newer GPU architectures generally bring efficiency improvements and may introduce technologies that enhance graphical capabilities.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
CodenameTU116Hawaii
ArchitectureTuringGCN 2.0
Process Size12 nm28 nm
Transistors6,600 million6,200 million

Memory Details

Memory specifications like their capacity, bandwidth, and clock speeds. GPU memory stores graphics data like frames, textures, and shadows which helps display rendered images. These specs are crucial for graphics-intense applications like gaming and 3D modeling.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
Memory Size6 GB4 GB
Memory TypeGDDR6GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth336 Gb/s320 Gb/s
Memory Clock1,750 MHz1,250 MHz
Memory Interface192 bit512 bit
L1 Cache64 KB16 KB
L2 Cache1,536 KB1,024 KB

Board Compatibility

Compatibility information like their slot size, bus interface, power consumption, and display support. These specs are useful for verifying compatibility with your motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
Slots2 slots2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)125 W290 W
Suggested PSU300 W600 W
Power Connectors1x 8-pin1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsDVI, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4aDVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2

Cores & Clock Speeds

Processing power information like its cores and clock speed. These specs impact how fast they can process graphics. Each type of core or component serves a specific computational purpose.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
Stream Processors (SP)--2,816
CUDA Cores1,408--
Compute Units (CU)--44
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)22--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)88176
Render Output Units (ROP)4864
Core Clock Speed1,530 MHz1,000 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,785 MHz--

Theoretical Performance

Theoretical performance numbers derived from the raw specifications of the different components like core count and clock speeds. While these provide a glimpse into peak processing power, they do not represent real-world performance.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
Pixel Fill Rate85.68 GPixel/s64 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate157.1 GTexel/s176 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance5.03 TFLOPS5.63 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance157.1 GFLOPS704 GFLOPS

API Support

Graphics API versions supported by these graphics cards. APIs evolve over time, introducing new features and functionalities. Older GPUs may not support recent versions.

SpecGeForce GTX 1660 SUPERRadeon R9 290X
DirectX12 (12_1)12 (12_0)
OpenCL3.02.1
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.76.5

Check out these comparisons for similar GPUs:

Looking for alternatives? Check out these similar GPUs:

* Performance rating, performance per dollar, and rankings are based on the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark and MSRP.