Radeon R9 280X vs Radeon RX 5500 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon R9 280X and Radeon RX 5500 XT, 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 R9 280X stacks up against Radeon RX 5500 XT, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon R9 280X Radeon RX 5500 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 130 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x8
Supplementary power connectors 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 8 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280X has 92% more power consumption, than Radeon RX 5500 XT.
  • Radeon R9 280X is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon RX 5500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8 interface.
  • Radeon RX 5500 XT has 5 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 280X.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon R9 280X is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon RX 5500 XT - with RDNA 1.0.
  • Radeon R9 280X is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon RX 5500 XT - by 7 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 280X is 95 mm longer, than Radeon RX 5500 XT.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 45−50
ultra / 1080p 21−24 30−35
QHD / 1440p 16−18 24−27
4K / 2160p 10−11 14−16
low / 720p 60−65 70−75
medium / 1080p 40−45 55−60
The average gaming FPS of Radeon RX 5500 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 28% more, than Radeon R9 280X.

Full Specs

  Radeon R9 280X Radeon RX 5500 XT
Architecture GCN RDNA 1.0
Code name Thaiti XTL Navi 14
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 8 October 2013 12 December 2019
Pipelines 2048 1408
Boost Clock 1000 MHz 1845 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 6,400 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 7 nm
Texture fill rate 128.0 162.4
Floating-point performance 4,096 gflops
Length 275 mm 180 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 14000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 288 GB/s 224.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_1)
Shader Model 5.1 6.5
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan + 1.2.131
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.5 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 494 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design 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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