GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with core speeds of 1050 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1664 SPUs along with 104 TAUs and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 91 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 970 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 280 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 82304 (58%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 is much (more or less 127%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61040 (127%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (about 249%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 280, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 47936 (249%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.