GeForce 9800 GTX vs Radeon R9 280X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce 9800 GTX and Radeon R9 280X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce 9800 GTX stacks up against Radeon R9 280X, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce 9800 GTX Radeon R9 280X
Power consumption (TDP) 140 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 3 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280X has 78% more power consumption, than GeForce 9800 GTX.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 280X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX has 509 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 280X.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is build with Tesla architecture, and Radeon R9 280X - with GCN.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280X is 265 mm longer, than GeForce 9800 GTX.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 35−40
ultra / 1080p 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 1−2 60−65
medium / 1080p 0−1 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 6100% more, than GeForce 9800 GTX.

Full Specs

  GeForce 9800 GTX Radeon R9 280X
Architecture Tesla GCN
Code name G92 Thaiti XTL
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 28 March 2008 8 October 2013
Pipelines 128 2048
Core clock speed 1688 MHz
Boost Clock 1000 MHz
Transistor count 754 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 43.2 billion/sec 128.0
Floating-point performance 432.1 gflops 4,096 gflops
Length 10.5" (26.7 cm) 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1100 MHz
Memory bandwidth 70.4 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 2.1 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A +
CUDA +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 128
Bus support PCI-E 2.0 PCIe 3.0
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI Via Adapter +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.42 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 285 Sol/s
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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