GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon R9 390X 8G

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 390X 8G, which features a clock frequency of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also features a 512-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2816 SPUs, 176 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
Radeon R9 390X 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 390X 8G is 171% faster than the GeForce GTX 280 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		384000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 242304 (171%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390X 8G will be quite a bit (approximately 284%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		184800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 136640 (284%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 390X 8G is superior to the GeForce GTX 280, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number 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 clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.