GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon HD 4890

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 280 and Radeon HD 4890, 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 280 stacks up against Radeon HD 4890, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon HD 4890
Power consumption (TDP) 236 Watt 190 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 6-pin & 8-pin 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video 2x DVI, 1x S-Video
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  • GeForce GTX 280 has 24% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 4890.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 2.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GTX 280 and Radeon HD 4890 have maximum RAM of 1 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is build with Tesla 2.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 4890 - with TeraScale.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 280 is 446 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 4890.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 4890 - by 55 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 4890 is 231 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 280.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 4890 is 2793 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 280.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 1−2 7−8
ultra / 1080p 0−1 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 12−14 16−18
medium / 1080p 3−4 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 4890 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 83% more, than GeForce GTX 280.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon HD 4890
Architecture Tesla 2.0 TeraScale
Code name GT200 RV790
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 16 June 2008 2 April 2009
Pipelines 240 800
Core clock speed 1296 MHz 850 MHz
Transistor count 1,400 million 959 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 55 nm
Texture fill rate 48.2 billion/sec 34.00
Floating-point performance 622.1 gflops 1,360.0 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm) 241 mm
Memory bus width 512 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1107 MHz 3900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 141.7 GB/s 124.8 GB/s
DirectX 11.1 (10_0) 10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model 4.0 4.1
OpenGL 2.1 3.3
OpenCL 1.1 1.1
Vulkan N/A N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 240
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
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