GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 285 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 285 2GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 648 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1242 MHz. It also makes use of a 512-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 240 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		204 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB should theoretically be a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 280 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 17280 (12%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB should be a bit (about 8%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3680 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB is a bit (more or less 8%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1472 (8%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.