GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 280X, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 850 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this specific card. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 145 Watts (138%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 280X will be 543% faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 243200 (543%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X is much (about 224%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 75200 (224%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X should be a lot (about 183%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17600 (183%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output 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 maximum fill rate.