GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon R9 280

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

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon R9 280
Power consumption (TDP) 236 Watt 200 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 6-pin & 8-pin 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • GeForce GTX 280 has 18% more power consumption, than Radeon R9 280.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 280 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 280 has 2 GB more memory, than GeForce GTX 280.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is build with Tesla 2.0 architecture, and Radeon R9 280 - with GCN 1.0.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280 is 265 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 280.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 280 is 143 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 280.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 1−2 35−40
ultra / 1080p 0−1 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 12−14 60−65
medium / 1080p 3−4 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 683% more, than GeForce GTX 280.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon R9 280
Architecture Tesla 2.0 GCN 1.0
Code name GT200 Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 16 June 2008 4 March 2014
Pipelines 240 1792
Core clock speed 1296 MHz
Boost Clock 933 MHz
Transistor count 1,400 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 48.2 billion/sec 104.5
Floating-point performance 622.1 gflops 3,344 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm) 275 mm
Memory bus width 512 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1107 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 141.7 GB/s 240 GB/s
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 +
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 240
Bus support PCIe 3.0
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 408 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 21.5 Mh/s
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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