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GeForce GTX 960 vs Radeon R9 280X
Intro
The GeForce GTX 960 makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this specific model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 280X, which has core speeds of 850 MHz on the GPU, and 1500 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.
Benchmarks
These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
| Radeon R9 280X |
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8886 points |
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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7627 points |
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Zcash Mining Hash Rate
| Radeon R9 280X |
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294 Sol/s |
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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154 Sol/s |
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Ethereum Mining Hash Rate
| Radeon R9 280X |
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21 Mh/s |
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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11 Mh/s |
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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
Power Consumption (Max TDP)
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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120 Watts |
| Radeon R9 280X |
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250 Watts |
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Memory Bandwidth
In theory, the Radeon R9 280X should be 157% quicker than the GeForce GTX 960 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)
| Radeon R9 280X |
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288000 MB/sec |
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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112000 MB/sec |
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Texel Rate
The Radeon R9 280X will be much (more or less 51%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)| Radeon R9 280X |
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108800 Mtexels/sec |
| GeForce GTX 960 |
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72128 Mtexels/sec |
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Pixel Rate
If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)| GeForce GTX 960 |
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36064 Mpixels/sec |
| Radeon R9 280X |
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27200 Mpixels/sec |
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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
GeForce GTX 960Amazon.com
Check prices at:
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Radeon R9 280XAmazon.com
Check prices at:
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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
Specifications
| Model | GeForce GTX 960 | Radeon R9 280X |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | nVidia | AMD |
| Year | January 2015 | October 2013 |
| Code Name | GM206 | Tahiti XTL |
| Memory | 2048 MB | 3072 MB |
| Core Speed | 1127 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Memory Speed | 7000 MHz | 6000 MHz |
| Power (Max TDP) | 120 watts | 250 watts |
| Bandwidth | 112000 MB/sec | 288000 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 72128 Mtexels/sec | 108800 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 36064 Mpixels/sec | 27200 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 1024 | 2048 |
| Texture Mapping Units | 64 | 128 |
| Render Output Units | 32 | 32 |
| Bus Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 128-bit | 384-bit |
| Fab Process | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 2940 million | 4313 million |
| Bus | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| DirectX Version | DirectX 12.0 | DirectX 11.2 |
| OpenGL Version | OpenGL 4.5 | OpenGL 4.3 |
Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.
Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.
Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.
GeForce GTX 960Amazon.com
Check prices at:
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Radeon R9 280XAmazon.com
Check prices at:
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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
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Comments
4 Responses to “GeForce GTX 960 vs Radeon R9 280X”For $50 more(or less), you can get a much much better card with the 280X. Also most 280X's on the market will have a base clock of 950+ MHz. So those looking at the 960 for an entry level card should look at the 280X because for slightly more cash, can get a card that can run most games at 1440p with ease instead of 1080p like the GTX 960.
128-bit and 1024 Unified shaders ("CUDA Cores") is a joke. Another PLACEBO CARD by NVIDIA.
I'm trying to make a PC but I'm not sure which video card to get. Radeon R9 280X or Geforce GTX 960. Any suggestions??
I bought two r9 280x over a year ago. IMHO,They run too hot. One burned out after 9 months. Second getting flaky. Looking to nvidia for cooler running cards. Gtx 960 looks OK. But gtx 970 probably on par or better than r9 280x *and* it runs much cooler (less power~=cooler temps... With same cooling scheme)