GeForce GTX 280 vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 680, which features GPU clock speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1536 Stream Processors, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 41 Watts (21%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Geforce GTX 680 is 36% faster than the GeForce GTX 280 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 50560 (36%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 should be a lot (about 167%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 80608 (167%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 680 is superior to the GeForce GTX 280, and very much so. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12928 (67%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the 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 is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated 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 is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.