GeForce 820M vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 280, which comes with core speeds of 602 MHz on the GPU, and 1107 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 240 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 820M		15 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 221 Watts (1473%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 280 is 786% quicker than the GeForce 820M overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce 820M		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 125696 (786%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 is a lot (about 319%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 820M. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 820M		11504 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36656 (319%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 280 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 820M		2876 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16388 (570%)

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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at 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 record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.