GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon R9 M270X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 280 and Radeon R9 M270X, 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 M270X, check out specs charts below.
GeForce GTX 280
Radeon R9 M270X

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon R9 M270X
Power consumption (TDP) 236 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 6-pin & 8-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
 
  • GeForce GTX 280 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M270X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M270X has 3 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 M270X - with GCN 1.0.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 280 is 571 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M270X.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M270X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M270X is 18 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 280.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 1−2 6−7
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 R9 M270X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 66% more, than GeForce GTX 280.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon R9 M270X
Architecture Tesla 2.0 GCN 1.0
Code name GT200 Venus
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 16 June 2008 21 March 2014
Pipelines 240 640
Core clock speed 1296 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 1,400 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 48.2 billion/sec 31.00
Floating-point performance 622.1 gflops 1,536 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
Memory bus width 512 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1107 MHz 1125 MHz
Memory bandwidth 141.7 GB/s 72 GB/s
DirectX 11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 2.1 4.4
OpenCL 1.1 Not Listed
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 240
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Compute units 10