Radeon R7 260 vs Radeon R9 280X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon R7 260 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 Radeon R7 260 stacks up against Radeon R9 280X, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon R7 260 Radeon R9 280X
Power consumption (TDP) 115 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1 x 6-pin 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, 1x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280X has 117% more power consumption, than Radeon R7 260.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon R9 280X has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon R7 260.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon R7 260 is build with GCN 2.0 architecture, and Radeon R9 280X - with GCN.
  • Radeon R7 260 and Radeon R9 280X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280X is 105 mm longer, than Radeon R7 260.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 14−16 35−40
ultra / 1080p 8−9 21−24
QHD / 1440p 3−4 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 30−35 60−65
medium / 1080p 18−20 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 140% more, than Radeon R7 260.

Full Specs

  Radeon R7 260 Radeon R9 280X
Architecture GCN 2.0 GCN
Code name Bonaire Thaiti XTL
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 17 December 2013 8 October 2013
Pipelines 768 2048
Boost Clock 1100 MHz 1000 MHz
Transistor count 2,080 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 48.00 128.0
Floating-point performance 1,536 gflops 4,096 gflops
Length 170 mm 275 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1625 MHz
Memory bandwidth 104 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shared memory -
Shader Model 6.3 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.0 1.2
Vulkan +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync + +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 PCIe 3.0
HDMI + +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 240 Mh/s 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity + +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference 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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