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Gaming Performance Comparison

In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 are significantly better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition.

The GTX 980 has a 108 MHz higher core clock speed than the Radeon R9 295X2, but the Radeon R9 295X2 has 224 more Texture Mapping Units than the GTX 980. As a result, the Radeon R9 295X2 exhibits a 214.2 GTexel/s better Texture Fill Rate than the GTX 980. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GTX 980 has a 108 MHz higher core clock speed than the Radeon R9 295X2, but the Radeon R9 295X2 has 64 more Render Output Units than the GTX 980. As a result, the Radeon R9 295X2 exhibits a 58.2 GPixel/s better Pixel Fill Rate than the GTX 980. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The GTX 980 was released less than a year after the Radeon R9 295X2, and so they are likely to have similar driver support for optimizing performance when running the latest games.

Both GPUs exhibit very powerful performance, so it probably isn't worth upgrading from one to the other, as both are capable of running even the most demanding games at the highest settings.

The Radeon R9 295X2 has 4096 MB more video memory than the GTX 980, so is likely to be much better at displaying game textures at higher resolutions. This is supported by the fact that the Radeon R9 295X2 also has superior memory performance overall.

The Radeon R9 295X2 has 415.6 GB/sec greater memory bandwidth than the GTX 980, which means that the memory performance of the Radeon R9 295X2 is massively better than the GTX 980.

The GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition has 2048 Shader Processing Units and the Radeon R9 295X2 has 5632. However, the actual shader performance of the GTX 980 is 3362 and the actual shader performance of the Radeon R9 295X2 is 5160. The Radeon R9 295X2 having 1798 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the Radeon R9 295X2 delivers a massively smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the GTX 980.

The GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition requires 180 Watts to run and the Radeon R9 295X2 requires 500 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 500 Watts for the GTX 980 and a PSU with at least 850 Watts for the Radeon R9 295X2. The Radeon R9 295X2 requires 320 Watts more than the GTX 980 to run. The difference is significant enough that the Radeon R9 295X2 may have an adverse affect on your yearly electricity bills in comparison to the GTX 980.

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GPU Core Details

Core Speed1126 MHzvs1018 MHz
ArchitectureMaxwell GM204-400-A1GCN 2.0 Versuvius XT
Notebook GPUnono
SLI/Crossfireyesvsyes
Dedicatedyesvsyes
Release Date19 Sep 201408 Apr 2014
GPU LinkGD LinkGD Link
Approved
Comparison

Resolution Performance

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3840x2160 - vs green tick
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GPU Memory

Memory4096 MBvs8192 MB
Memory Speed1753 MHzvs1250 MHz
Memory Bus256 Bitvs1024 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5vsGDDR5
Memory Bandwidth224.4GB/secvs640GB/sec
L2 Cache 2048 KB green tick vs green tick 2048 KB
Comparison

GPU Display

Shader Processing Units2048vs5632
Actual Shader Performance3362vs5160
Technology28nmvs28nm
Texture Mapping Units128vs352
Texture Rate144.1 GTexel/svs358.3 GTexel/s
Render Output Units64vs128
Pixel Rate72.1 GPixel/svs130.3 GPixel/s
Comparison

GPU Display Tech

DirectX12vs11.2
Shader Model5.0vs5.0
Open GL4.4vs4.4
Max Resolution (WxH)4096x2160vs4096x2160
VGA Connections0vs0
DVI Connections1vs2
HDMI Connections1vs1
Comparison

GPU Power Requirements

Max Power180 Wattsvs500 Watts

GPU Supporting Hardware

Recommended RAM12 GBvs12 GB
Recommended Screen Size3840x21605760x1600
Recommended PSU500 Watts & 42 Ampsvs850 Watts

Gaming Performance Value

Performance Value

GPU Mini Review

Mini ReviewOverview
GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition is a special edition of NVIDIA's high-end GeForce GTX 980 4GB created by MSI. It doesn't have any new features. Read below to know more.

Overclock Out of The Box
The Clock Frequencies of both Central Unit and Operating Memory Clock Remain the Same.

Cooling Solution
The Cooling System remains the same.

Power Consumption
According to MSI, the rated board TDP was unlocked to 180W. A 500W PSU with at least 2 6-pin available recommended is required.

Release Price
GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition was released for $549.99. That's the same price of the reference Graphics Card.

Performance
Without a New Cooling Solution or overclocking out of the box, GeForce GTX 980 MSI 4GB Edition is as fast as the reference GeForce GTX 980 4GB. Therefore, Dual GeForce GTX 690 is still slightly faster.
Radeon R9 295X2 is a dual graphics solution based on the second revision of the GCN architecture.
Radeon R9 295X2 is essentially a Radeon R9 290X put in CrossFire Mode, as it offers two Full Haiwaii XT Cores with 5632 Shader Processing Units, 352 TMUs and 128 ROPs, on a 1024-bit memory interface of fast GDDR5.
However, the central unit is clocked at 1018MHz and the rated board TDP is around 500W. Thus, the card performs very slightly better than two Radeon R9 290X in CrossFire and at the same time, consume less energy.
Furthermore, the card offers hybrid cooling, meaning it also operates at a lower temperature.
Benchmarks indicate its performance is over 40% better than the previous Radeon HD 7990, using a 5K resolution and so GeForce GTX 780 Ti SLI is slower, though cheaper.
As of April 2014, Radeon R9 295X2 is the fastest reference dual-card available.
Recommended CPUIntel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz
Intel Core i5-4570S 2.9GHz
Intel Core i5-4690T 2.5GHz
Intel Core i7-975 Quad 3.33GHz Extreme
AMD FX-8320
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Possible GPU Upgrades--
GPU Variants--