AMD Radeon R9 255 OEM

AMD Radeon R9 255 OEM is a discrete GPU built around the Cape Verde chip with GCN 1.0 architecture. It belongs to the Volcanic Islands (R9 200) generation and was produced on TSMC's 28 nm process. The listed transistor count is 1,500 million on a 123 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 12.2M / mm². The card's clocks are 900 MHz base and 930 MHz boost. The specification sheet records 512 shading units, 32 texture units, and 16 ROPs, leading to 952.3 GFLOPS FP32 compute. The database entry contains no benchmark entries, no nearest rivals, no display outputs, and an average benchmark score of 0; the percentile rank of 50 places it at the midpoint of all GPUs in the database. This is an end-of-life OEM product released on December 20, 2013, between the Sea Islands and Pirate Islands generations.

Power and Cooling

The TDP is 65 W, and the suggested power supply rating is 250 W. The card requires one 6-pin PCIe power connector as its only listed auxiliary power connection. It is a dual-slot board, so the physical cooling solution occupies two expansion slots. The fact pack does not list length, height, or width, so full chassis compatibility cannot be assessed beyond slot count. The PCIe 3.0 x16 bus interface is present, and the power delivery configuration is simple enough for a system with a 250 W-class PSU, assuming the 6-pin lead is available. For an OEM part, this is a modest power footprint. The end-of-life status suggests the board will be encountered in existing systems or surplus inventories rather than new retail builds, but the electrical requirements themselves are straightforward: 65 W TDP, one 6-pin connector, and a 250 W suggested PSU.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The fact pack lists no RT core count and no tensor core count. There is therefore no dedicated ray tracing or tensor acceleration hardware to analyze in this entry. The feature set instead rests on the GCN 1.0 architecture and the supported APIs: DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The DirectX entry is specifically feature level 11_1, not a full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set, and no ray tracing API support is indicated in the data. For general throughput, the FP32 compute rate is 952.3 GFLOPS, while pixel and texture rates are 14.88 GPixel/s and 29.76 GTexel/s respectively. Those figures define the raw processing envelope. Since ray tracing and tensor core fields are null, any workload that relies on those units cannot be evaluated from this fact pack; the GCN 1.0 feature set is what remains.

Memory Subsystem

Memory capacity is 2 GB of GDDR5. The bus width is 128 bits. The memory clock is 1150 MHz, with a 4.6 Gbps effective data rate, producing a memory bandwidth of 73.60 GB/s. These values describe a memory subsystem where capacity and bandwidth are both bounded. The 2 GB framebuffer means any workload must fit within that VRAM footprint, while the 128-bit bus and 73.60 GB/s bandwidth put a ceiling on how quickly textures and geometry can be fed to the 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs. At high resolutions, the demand for memory bandwidth grows with pixel count and texture complexity, and the 128-bit interface is likely to become the limiting factor before the core clocks do. The 952.3 GFLOPS FP32 rate is the compute side of the equation; 73.60 GB/s is the data-transfer side. No memory comparisons to rivals are present in the fact pack, so this bandwidth figure should be read as an absolute specification rather than a relative strength.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals array in the fact pack is empty. There are no rival names, no rival scores, and no deltaPct values to cite for the R9 255 OEM. The only comparative field is percentileVsAllGpus, which is 50, placing the card at the midpoint of all GPUs tracked in the database. However, the average benchmark score is 0 and no individual benchmarks are attached to the entry, so the percentile rank is not grounded in measured results. Without nearest rivals, any specific comparison to another GPU would be unsupported by the fact pack. The neutral reading of the data is that this is a median-ranked database entry whose performance profile must be inferred from its listed specifications rather than from deltas to other cards. The absent benchmark data also means there is no measured confirmation of how the memory bandwidth or FP32 throughput translates into real-world results.

Who Should Consider It

Because the listing shows no display outputs, this is not a card that can drive a monitor directly in a typical desktop build. It is an OEM part, released on December 20, 2013, and currently end-of-life. A system integrator or secondary-compute use case is the natural fit, provided the host machine already has another display adapter. The GPU's 2 GB GDDR5 framebuffer and 73.60 GB/s bandwidth suggest it can handle workloads whose memory requirements stay below that capacity, and the 128-bit bus makes it better suited to lower resolutions than to high-resolution rendering. The 512 shading units and 32 TMUs give it a defined throughput envelope: 14.88 GPixel/s pixel fill and 29.76 GTexel/s texture fill. The 65 W TDP and 250 W PSU recommendation mean integration into an existing system is electrically simple. But with no benchmark scores, the expected experience at any specific resolution and settings is not measured in the data. Gamers who need to connect a display should not choose this card based on the fact pack, since display outputs are absent. Compute-focused builders with a separate display path and workloads that fit in 2 GB VRAM may find the GCN 1.0 feature set acceptable, but direct performance evidence is missing.

FAQ

Q: What is the TDP and what power supply is suggested?

A: The TDP is 65 W. The suggested PSU is 250 W. The card requires one 6-pin power connector and occupies a dual-slot width.

Q: Does the R9 255 OEM have dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: The fact pack lists no RT core count and no tensor core count. The supported APIs are DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: What memory configuration is listed?

A: The card has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory clock is 1150 MHz, with 4.6 Gbps effective data rate, giving a memory bandwidth of 73.60 GB/s.

Q: What are the core specifications?

A: The chip is Cape Verde with GCN 1.0 architecture on a 28 nm TSMC process. It has 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Base clock is 900 MHz and boost clock is 930 MHz.

Q: Can the R9 255 OEM be used to drive a monitor?

A: No. The display outputs field is "No outputs", so it cannot connect a display directly.

Q: Are there benchmark scores or rival comparisons in the fact pack?

A: The benchmarks array is empty, the average benchmark score is 0, and nearestRivals is empty. The percentile vs all GPUs is 50.