GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon R9 M385X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M385X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1100 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1500 MHz on this card. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 280 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the Radeon R9 M385X in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
Radeon R9 M385X		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 45696 (48%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M385X will be quite a bit (about 28%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

Radeon R9 M385X		61600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13440 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 is a bit (approximately 9%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon R9 M385X, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 M385X		17600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1664 (9%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.