AMD Radeon R9 M295X vs NVIDIA CMP 70HX Comparison

The NVIDIA CMP 70HX and AMD Radeon R9 M295X represent two very different answers to the question of what a GPU should be. The CMP 70HX is a modern, Ampere-based mining part stripped of display outputs, while the R9 M295X is a 2014-era mobile GCN 3.0 flagship designed for high-end laptops. The benchmark data shows a clear overall winner, but the story is more nuanced when you consider the architectural gulf and the specific workloads each was built to handle. The CMP 70HX wins both shared benchmarks, yet the R9 M295X holds its own in the Metal API, a test the NVIDIA card cannot even run.

Where Each One Wins

The data splits cleanly along API and workload lines. In the two tests both cards participated in—Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan—the NVIDIA CMP 70HX wins decisively. Its OpenCL score of 25135 beats the R9 M295X's 22858 by 10%, and its Vulkan score of 35817 crushes the AMD part's 29091 by a massive 23.1%. This indicates that in cross-platform compute and modern graphics APIs, the CMP 70HX has a clear performance advantage, likely stemming from its newer architecture and significantly higher raw throughput.

However, the R9 M295X has a unique win in its corner: it is the only one of the two with a Geekbench Metal score. It posts 33790 in that test, which is higher than the CMP 70HX's OpenCL score and nearly as high as the NVIDIA card's Vulkan result. This suggests that in Apple's Metal ecosystem, the R9 M295X is a capable performer, even if it loses in every head-to-head comparison. The CMP 70HX cannot participate in Metal at all, meaning the R9 M295X is the only choice for that specific API. In terms of pure benchmark wins, the CMP 70HX takes 2, and the R9 M295X takes 0, but the Metal result gives the AMD card a niche where it is the sole contender.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by more than just time; they are fundamentally different designs. The NVIDIA CMP 70HX is built on the GA104 chip using the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The R9 M295X, conversely, uses the Amethyst chip with AMD's GCN 3.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It has just 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 13.7M per mm². This node advantage is pivotal: the CMP 70HX crams over three times the transistors into a similar physical space.

The feature sets diverge sharply. The CMP 70HX includes 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, which are hardware units for ray tracing and AI acceleration—features entirely absent from the R9 M295X, which has no RT cores or tensor cores listed. The NVIDIA card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD part is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support also differs, with the CMP 70HX at version 1.4 versus the R9 M295X's 1.2.170. The memory technology tells a similar story: the CMP 70HX uses GDDR6X, while the R9 M295X uses older GDDR5. The NVIDIA card is a dual-slot, 267 mm long PCIe 1.0 x4 part with a 12-pin power connector, whereas the AMD chip is an MXM Module with no dedicated power connectors, relying on the host device for power and featuring a bus interface of MXM-B (3.0). The CMP 70HX has no display outputs; the R9 M295X's outputs are portable device dependent.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparisons are limited to two tests, but they are telling. In Geekbench OpenCL, the CMP 70HX scores 25135 against the R9 M295X's 22858. That 10% delta shows a solid, but not overwhelming, lead for the NVIDIA part in general-purpose compute. The gap widens considerably in Geekbench Vulkan, where the CMP 70HX hits 35817 and the R9 M295X trails at 29091. The 23.1% advantage here suggests that the CMP 70HX's architecture scales much better with Vulkan's lower-overhead, multi-threaded design. This is likely a function of the newer Ampere architecture's improved scheduling and higher shader count.

The R9 M295X's best showing is its Metal score of 33790, which is not a head-to-head test but is worth noting. If it were compared against the CMP 70HX's Vulkan score of 35817, it would be about 5.6% behind. Against the CMP 70HX's OpenCL score of 25135, the R9 M295X would actually be 34.5% ahead. This indicates that the R9 M295X is not weak in absolute terms; it is simply optimized for a different API. The average benchmark score for the CMP 70HX is 30476, placing it at the 75th percentile of all GPUs, while the R9 M295X averages 28580, at the 74th percentile. These percentile rankings are nearly identical, showing that despite the CMP 70HX's dominant head-to-head wins, both cards sit in the same performance tier overall.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets highlight how different these two products are. The CMP 70HX has a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1395 MHz, while the R9 M295X has no listed base or boost clocks. Memory clocks differ dramatically: the NVIDIA card runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective, while the AMD part runs at 1250 MHz with 5 Gbps effective. The memory configuration favors the CMP 70HX with 8 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, yielding 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The R9 M295X has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing just 160.0 GB/s. This 3.8x bandwidth advantage for the CMP 70HX is a major factor in its benchmark wins.

Compute resources also favor the NVIDIA card. The CMP 70HX has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The R9 M295X has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. While the R9 M295X has slightly more TMUs, the CMP 70HX has nearly double the shaders and double the ROPs. The pixel rate for the CMP 70HX is 89.28 GPixel/s versus 23.14 GPixel/s for the R9 M295X, and the texture rate is 167.4 GTexel/s versus 92.54 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 10.71 TFLOPS for the CMP 70HX and 2.961 TFLOPS for the R9 M295X, a 3.6x difference. The TDP is listed only for the R9 M295X at 250 W, while the CMP 70HX has a suggested PSU of 200 W. The R9 M295X was released on 2014-11-22, while the CMP 70HX has no release date listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 70HX. Its FP32 throughput is 10.71 TFLOPS, which is 3.6 times higher than the R9 M295X's 2.961 TFLOPS.

Q: Why does the R9 M295X have a Metal benchmark score when the CMP 70HX does not?

A: The R9 M295X has a Geekbench Metal score of 33790, while the CMP 70HX has no Metal benchmark listed. This is because the CMP 70HX is a mining GPU with no display outputs, making it incompatible with Metal's graphics-centric requirements.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The CMP 70HX has a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s using 8 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus. The R9 M295X has only 160.0 GB/s with 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card is closer to its nearest rival in performance?

A: The R9 M295X is closer. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 570, has a deltaPct of -0.6%, meaning they are nearly identical. The CMP 70HX's nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla M60, has a deltaPct of 0%, making it a perfect match.

Q: What architecture does each GPU use, and what does that mean for features?

A: The CMP 70HX uses NVIDIA's Ampere architecture on an 8 nm process, featuring 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. The R9 M295X uses AMD's GCN 3.0 on a 28 nm process, with no RT or tensor cores.

Q: Is the R9 M295X competitive in any benchmark against the CMP 70HX?

A: Not in a direct head-to-head. The CMP 70HX wins OpenCL by 10% and Vulkan by 23.1%. However, the R9 M295X's Metal score of 33790 is higher than the CMP 70HX's OpenCL score of 25135, showing it is competitive in that specific API.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear choice for most users: the NVIDIA CMP 70HX. It wins both shared benchmarks outright, with a 10% lead in OpenCL and a 23.1% lead in Vulkan. It has more than triple the FP32 compute, nearly four times the memory bandwidth, and double the ROPs. Its 8 GB of memory versus 4 GB, combined with newer GDDR6X technology, makes it more future-proof for memory-heavy workloads. The 75th percentile ranking versus the R9 M295X's 74th percentile is close, but the head-to-head deltas are not. For anyone running OpenCL or Vulkan applications, the CMP 70HX is the superior part.

However, there is a specific scenario where the R9 M295X is the only option. If your workload requires the Metal API, the CMP 70HX cannot run it at all, and the R9 M295X's score of 33790 is respectable. The R9 M295X also has a TDP of 250 W, which is a listed specification, while the CMP 70HX has no TDP listed but a suggested PSU of 200 W. The R9 M295X's MXM form factor makes it suitable for portable devices, whereas the CMP 70HX is a dual-slot PCIe card with a 12-pin connector. The verdict is clear: the CMP 70HX is the better performer in every direct comparison, but the R9 M295X retains value as a Metal-capable, mobile-oriented GPU for specific legacy systems.