Radeon R5 M255 vs Radeon R9 280

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 280, which features GPU core speed of 933 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1250 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 1792 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 280 will be 1400% faster than the Radeon R5 M255 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 280		240000 MB/sec
Radeon R5 M255		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 224000 (1400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280 will be quite a bit (more or less 456%) better at AF than the Radeon R5 M255. (explain)

Radeon R9 280		104496 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R5 M255		18800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 85696 (456%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 280 is superior to the Radeon R5 M255, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 280		29856 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R5 M255		7520 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22336 (297%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.