AMD Radeon R9 M295X vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data shows a decisive generational gap between these two AMD GPUs. In the two shared tests, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE wins outright, with margins that are not incremental but transformative.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7900 GRE scores 175,758 against the R9 M295X’s 22,858. That is a 668.9% advantage, meaning the newer card delivers roughly 7.7 times the compute throughput in this API. No other comparison in the recorded data comes close to this spread. The OpenCL result reflects raw shader throughput, and the RX 7900 GRE’s 5,120 shading units versus 2,048 on the R9 M295X, combined with a much higher boost clock, explains the magnitude.

The Vulkan test tells a similar story, though with a narrower gap. The RX 7900 GRE scores 99,850, while the R9 M295X manages 29,091. That translates to a 243.2% lead for the newer card. Vulkan is a lower-level API that can expose driver and architecture efficiencies, yet even here the RX 7900 GRE is more than 3.4 times faster. The R9 M295X’s GCN 3.0 architecture, designed for laptops as an MXM module, simply cannot match the modern RDNA 3.0 design in sustained throughput.

The average benchmark score reinforces this hierarchy. The RX 7900 GRE sits at 32,456 average across all recorded tests, while the R9 M295X averages 28,580. That is a 13.6% overall advantage for the RX 7900 GRE, though this figure is weighted by the R9 M295X’s inclusion of a Geekbench Metal score (33,790) that has no counterpart on the RX 7900 GRE. In the two directly comparable tests, the RX 7900 GRE’s dominance is far larger.

The percentile rankings are closer than the raw numbers suggest. The RX 7900 GRE sits in the 77th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the R9 M295X sits in the 74th. This indicates that the R9 M295X, despite being nearly a decade older and far slower in absolute terms, still outperforms a meaningful share of the database’s entries. But within this pairing, there is no contest: the RX 7900 GRE wins both head-to-head tests, with a combined win count of 2 to 0.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 7900 GRE wins in every scenario where the two cards can be directly compared. Its OpenCL and Vulkan results place it firmly ahead for compute-heavy workloads, including GPU-accelerated rendering, machine learning inference, and general-purpose GPGPU tasks. The 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth gives it a massive advantage in memory-bound applications, versus the R9 M295X’s 4 GB GDDR5 at 160.0 GB/s.

The R9 M295X does have one recorded benchmark win, but it is not against the RX 7900 GRE. Its Geekbench Metal score of 33,790 is the only test in its suite that does not appear on the RX 7900 GRE’s list. This means the R9 M295X retains relevance for older macOS or Metal-only workloads, where its GCN architecture has mature driver support. However, this is a platform-specific advantage, not a performance one.

For gaming, the RX 7900 GRE’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support and 80 ray tracing cores put it in a different class. The R9 M295X supports only DirectX 12 (12_0), with no ray tracing hardware at all. The RX 7900 GRE also posts a PassMark G3D score of 27,089, which is not directly comparable to the R9 M295X’s suite but indicates strong legacy DirectX performance. The R9 M295X, by contrast, shows no PassMark results in the database, likely due to its mobile MXM form factor and limited testing coverage.

The R9 M295X’s only realistic use case today is in laptops or all-in-one systems that require its specific MXM-B (3.0) interface. It is an end-of-life product with no active production, while the RX 7900 GRE is still in active production. For anyone building or upgrading a desktop, the RX 7900 GRE is the only sensible choice from this pairing.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE has an average benchmark score of 32,456, versus 28,580 for the AMD Radeon R9 M295X. That is a 13.6% overall advantage for the newer card.

Q: How much faster is the RX 7900 GRE in OpenCL?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7900 GRE scores 175,758 against the R9 M295X’s 22,858, a 668.9% lead. This is the largest margin in any shared test.

Q: Does the R9 M295X support ray tracing?

A: No. The R9 M295X has no ray tracing cores listed in the database. The RX 7900 GRE includes 80 ray tracing cores.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RX 7900 GRE has 576.0 GB/s bandwidth from 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The R9 M295X has 160.0 GB/s from 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. The RX 7900 GRE offers 3.6 times the bandwidth.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. The RX 7900 GRE is listed as Active production, while the R9 M295X is End-of-life.

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference?

A: The RX 7900 GRE ranks in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, while the R9 M295X ranks in the 74th. Despite the large performance gap, both are above the median in the database.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every core specification. The RX 7900 GRE uses 5,120 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 160 render output units. The R9 M295X uses 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This means the RX 7900 GRE has 2.5 times the shaders, 2.5 times the texture units, and 5 times the ROP count.

Memory is a major differentiator. The RX 7900 GRE has 16 GB GDDR6 with a 256-bit bus and 576.0 GB/s bandwidth. The R9 M295X has 4 GB GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus and 160.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use the same bus width, but the newer memory type and higher effective speed (18 Gbps versus 5 Gbps) give the RX 7900 GRE a 3.6x bandwidth advantage.

Clock speeds differ significantly. The RX 7900 GRE has a base clock of 1287 MHz, a game clock of 1880 MHz, and a boost clock of 2245 MHz. The R9 M295X has no base, game, or boost clocks listed in the database, only a memory clock of 1250 MHz. This makes direct clock comparison impossible, but the RX 7900 GRE’s higher transistor density (109.1M per mm² versus 13.7M per mm²) and newer process node explain its clock advantage.

Power and form factor also diverge. The RX 7900 GRE is a dual-slot card with 2x 8-pin power connectors and a suggested 600 W PSU, drawing 260 W. The R9 M295X is an MXM module with no power connectors listed and a 250 W TDP. The RX 7900 GRE measures 276 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width, while the R9 M295X has no dimensions recorded.

The bus interface differs as well: PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RX 7900 GRE versus MXM-B (3.0) for the R9 M295X. Display outputs are another split: the RX 7900 GRE offers 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C, while the R9 M295X’s outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent."

Architecture Differences

The RX 7900 GRE is built on RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, codenamed Plum Bonito, part of the Navi III (RX 7000) generation. The R9 M295X uses GCN 3.0 architecture with the Amethyst chip, part of the Gem System (R9 M200) generation. These are two completely different design philosophies: RDNA 3.0 is a modern gaming-first architecture, while GCN 3.0 is an older compute-oriented design.

The manufacturing process tells the story of the performance gap. The RX 7900 GRE uses a 5 nm process at TSMC, packing 57,700 million transistors onto a 529 mm² die. The R9 M295X uses a 28 nm process, also at TSMC, with 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die. The transistor density difference is stark: 109.1M per mm² for the RX 7900 GRE versus 13.7M per mm² for the R9 M295X. That is an 8x density advantage for the newer chip.

The RX 7900 GRE includes 80 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the R9 M295X. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the R9 M295X only reaches DirectX 12 (12_0). Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the RX 7900 GRE has Vulkan 1.4 support versus Vulkan 1.2.170 on the R9 M295X.

Compute throughput is dramatically different. The RX 7900 GRE delivers 45.98 TFLOPS FP32 and 91.96 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The R9 M295X delivers 2.961 TFLOPS FP32 and 2.961 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio). The RX 7900 GRE is 15.5 times faster in FP32 and 31 times faster in FP16. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: the RX 7900 GRE hits 359.2 GPixel/s and 718.4 GTexel/s, versus 23.14 GPixel/s and 92.54 GTexel/s for the R9 M295X.

Release timing explains much of this. The R9 M295X launched on 2014-11-22, while the RX 7900 GRE launched on 2023-07-26. The R9 M295X’s predecessor is listed as "Solar System" and its successor as "Polaris Mobile," while the RX 7900 GRE’s predecessor is "Navi II" and successor is "Navi IV." Neither card has tensor cores listed.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is the superior GPU in every directly comparable metric. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, has a higher average score, higher percentile ranking, more memory, more bandwidth, more shaders, more ROPs, and a modern architecture with features the R9 M295X simply lacks. The 668.9% OpenCL lead and 243.2% Vulkan lead are not close calls; they are generational blowouts.

Choose the RX 7900 GRE if you need a desktop GPU for modern gaming, ray tracing, high-resolution texture workloads, or compute tasks. Its 16 GB GDDR6 memory and 576.0 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for 4K gaming and GPU-accelerated content creation. Its active production status and PCIe 4.0 interface mean it will remain relevant for years. Its 77th percentile ranking places it above most GPUs in the database.

Choose the R9 M295X only if you are constrained to an MXM-B (3.0) laptop or all-in-one system and require its specific form factor. Its 74th percentile ranking shows it is not obsolete by database standards, and its Geekbench Metal score of 33,790 indicates it can still handle older Apple-centric workloads. But its 4 GB GDDR5 memory, 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, and lack of ray tracing hardware make it unsuitable for modern AAA gaming or serious compute work. It is an end-of-life product with no production status.

For anyone with a choice, the RX 7900 GRE is the only rational pick. The R9 M295X is a historical artifact, competent for its 2014 era but outclassed by nearly every measure in this comparison.