AMD Radeon R9 280X vs ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Comparative analysis of AMD Radeon R9 280X and ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score.

AMD Radeon R9 280X

ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Differences

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon R9 280X

Videocard is newer: launch date 5 year(s) 6 month(s) later
3.2x more pipelines: 2048 vs 2x 320
4.8x better floating-point performance: 4,096 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 55 nm
3x more maximum memory size: 3 GB vs 2x 512 MB
7.6x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 6211 vs 822
Around 63% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 686 vs 422

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	8 October 2013 vs 4 April 2008
Pipelines	2048 vs 2x 320
Floating-point performance	4,096 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 55 nm
Maximum memory size	3 GB vs 2x 512 MB
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	6211 vs 822
PassMark - G2D Mark	686 vs 422

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Around 65% higher texture fill rate: 2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 128.0 GTexel / s
Around 79% lower typical power consumption: 140 Watt vs 250 Watt

Texture fill rate	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 128.0 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	140 Watt vs 250 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: AMD Radeon R9 280X
GPU 2: ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

6211

822

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

686

422

Name	AMD Radeon R9 280X	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
PassMark - G3D Mark	6211	822
PassMark - G2D Mark	686	422
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	89.187
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	1434.496
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	7.656
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	87.459
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	493.57
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	9603
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3700
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3357
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	9603
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3700
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3357
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	2346

Compare specifications (specs)

	AMD Radeon R9 280X	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
Essentials
Architecture	GCN 1.0	TeraScale
Code name	Tahiti	RV670
Design	AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
Launch date	8 October 2013	4 April 2008
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	$349
Place in performance rating	378	344
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Boost clock speed	1000 MHz
Floating-point performance	4,096 gflops	2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Pipelines	2048	2x 320
Stream Processors	2048
Texture fill rate	128.0 GTexel / s	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	250 Watt	140 Watt
Transistor count	4,313 million	666 million
Core clock speed		669 MHz
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
DisplayPort support
Dual-link DVI support
Eyefinity
HDMI
VGA
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Bus support	PCIe 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	275 mm	267 mm
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
API support
DirectX	12	10.0
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
Vulkan
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	2x 512 MB
Memory bandwidth	288 GB/s	2x 53.0 GB / s
Memory bus width	384 Bit	2x 256 Bit
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Shared memory	0
Memory clock speed		1656 MHz
Technologies
AMD Eyefinity
AppAcceleration
CrossFire
DDMA audio
FreeSync
HD3D
LiquidVR
TressFX
TrueAudio
Unified Video Decoder (UVD)