GeForce GTX 970 vs Radeon R9 280X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 970 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 970 stacks up against Radeon R9 280X, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 970 Radeon R9 280X
Power consumption (TDP) 148 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pins 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Recommended system power (PSU) 500 Watt
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  • Radeon R9 280X has 68% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 970.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GTX 970 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 280X.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 970 is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon R9 280X - with GCN.
  • GeForce GTX 970 and Radeon R9 280X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280X is 265 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 50−55 35−40
ultra / 1080p 30−35 21−24
QHD / 1440p 27−30 16−18
4K / 2160p 14−16 10−11
low / 720p 75−80 60−65
medium / 1080p 60−65 40−45
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 37% more, than Radeon R9 280X.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 970 Radeon R9 280X
Architecture Maxwell GCN
Code name GM204 Thaiti XTL
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 19 September 2014 8 October 2013
Pipelines 1664 2048
Core clock speed 1050 MHz
Boost Clock 1178 MHz 1000 MHz
Transistor count 5,200 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 109 billion/sec 128.0
Floating-point performance 3,920 gflops 4,096 gflops
Length 10.5" (26.7 cm) 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 7.0 GB/s
Memory bandwidth 224 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shared memory - -
G-SYNC support +
DirectX 12 (12_1)
Shader Model 6.4 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 +
CUDA +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.48 kh/s 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 1664
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) 478 Mh/s 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.51 Gh/s 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 22.21 Mh/s 14.42 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 291.61 Sol/s 285 Sol/s
GameStream +
GeForce ShadowPlay +
GPU Boost 2.0
GameWorks +
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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