GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 285 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 285 1GB, which comes with core clock speeds of 648 MHz on the GPU, and 1242 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		42 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		38 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (11%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		40 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		36 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (11%)

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		80 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		73 FPS
	Difference: 7 FPS (10%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		66 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		65 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (2%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		89 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		84 FPS
	Difference: 5 FPS (6%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		77 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		71 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (8%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		97 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		89 FPS
	Difference: 8 FPS (9%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		121 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		117 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (3%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		44 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		38 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (16%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		30 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		28 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (7%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		74 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		57 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (30%)

---

GeForce GTX 285 1GB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB wins overall, by 64 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		760 FPS
GeForce GTX 280		696 FPS
	Difference: 64 FPS (9%)

---

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB should in theory be a small bit superior to the GeForce GTX 280 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 17280 (12%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB should be a little bit (approximately 8%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3680 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB should be a bit (about 8%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1472 (8%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.