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Radeon R9 270X vs Radeon R9 280

Intro

The Radeon R9 270X features a GPU core speed of 1000 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM runs at 1400 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 280, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 933 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1250 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1792 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 270X 180 Watts
Radeon R9 280 250 Watts
Difference: 70 Watts (39%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 280 is 34% quicker than the Radeon R9 270X in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 280 240000 MB/sec
Radeon R9 270X 179200 MB/sec
Difference: 60800 (34%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280 is much (about 31%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon R9 270X. (explain)

Radeon R9 280 104496 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R9 270X 80000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 24496 (31%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be just a bit (more or less 7%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon R9 280, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X 32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 280 29856 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2144 (7%)

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

Radeon R9 270X

Amazon.com

Radeon R9 280

Amazon.com

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Model Radeon R9 270X Radeon R9 280
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year October 2013 March 2014
Code Name Curacao XT Tahiti Pro
Fab Process 28 nm 28 nm
Bus PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory 2048 MB 3072 MB
Core Speed 1000 MHz 933 MHz
Shader Speed N/A MHz (N/A) MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz (5600 MHz effective) 1250 MHz (5000 MHz effective)
Unified Shaders 1280 1792
Texture Mapping Units 80 112
Render Output Units 32 32
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 384-bit
DirectX Version DirectX 11.2 DirectX 11.2
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.3 OpenGL 4.3
Power (Max TDP) 180 watts 250 watts
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
Bandwidth 179200 MB/sec 240000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 80000 Mtexels/sec 104496 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 32000 Mpixels/sec 29856 Mpixels/sec

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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

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