GeForce GTX 950 vs Radeon R9 280X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 950 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 GTX 950 stacks up against Radeon R9 280X, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 950 Radeon R9 280X
Power consumption (TDP) 90 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pins 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Recommended system power (PSU) 350 Watt
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon R9 280X has 177% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 950.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon R9 280X has 1 GB more memory, than GeForce GTX 950.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 950 is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon R9 280X - with GCN.
  • GeForce GTX 950 and Radeon R9 280X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280X is 268 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 950.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 35−40
ultra / 1080p 21−24 21−24
QHD / 1440p 16−18 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11 10−11
low / 720p 60−65 60−65
medium / 1080p 40−45 40−45
GeForce GTX 950 and Radeon R9 280X have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 950 Radeon R9 280X
Architecture Maxwell GCN
Code name GM206 Thaiti XTL
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 20 August 2015 8 October 2013
Pipelines 768 2048
Core clock speed 1024 MHz
Boost Clock 1188 MHz 1000 MHz
Transistor count 2,940 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 49.2 billion/sec 128.0
Floating-point performance 1,825 gflops 4,096 gflops
Length 7.938" (20.2 cm) 275 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 6.6 GB/s
Memory bandwidth 105.6 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shared memory - -
G-SYNC support +
DirectX 12 (12_1)
Shader Model 6.4 5.1
OpenGL 4.5 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 +
CUDA +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 768
Bus support PCI Express 3.0 PCIe 3.0
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support 4 displays
HDMI +
HDCP +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 233 Mh/s 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 9.97 Mh/s 14.42 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 285 Sol/s
GameStream +
GeForce ShadowPlay +
GPU Boost 2.0
GameWorks +
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
  Check Price Check Price