NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 vs ATI Radeon X850 PRO

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 and ATI Radeon X850 PRO 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, Geekbench - OpenCL, GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

ATI Radeon X850 PRO

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

Videocard is newer: launch date 3 year(s) 6 month(s) later
2.6x more core clock speed: 1296 MHz vs 507 MHz
7.9x more texture fill rate: 48.2 billion / sec vs 6.08 GTexel / s
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 65 nm vs 130 nm
4x more maximum memory size: 1 GB vs 256 MB
Around 6% higher memory clock speed: 1107 MHz vs 1040 MHz
17.6x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 1285 vs 73

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	16 June 2008 vs 1 December 2004
Core clock speed	1296 MHz vs 507 MHz
Texture fill rate	48.2 billion / sec vs 6.08 GTexel / s
Manufacturing process technology	65 nm vs 130 nm
Maximum memory size	1 GB vs 256 MB
Memory clock speed	1107 MHz vs 1040 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	1285 vs 73

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon X850 PRO

2.7x better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 157 vs 59

Benchmarks
PassMark - G2D Mark	157 vs 59

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
GPU 2: ATI Radeon X850 PRO

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

1285

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

157

Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280	ATI Radeon X850 PRO
PassMark - G3D Mark	1285	73
PassMark - G2D Mark	59	157
Geekbench - OpenCL	21396
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	2697
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	2697
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3325
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3325

Compare specifications (specs)

	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280	ATI Radeon X850 PRO
Essentials
Architecture	Tesla 2.0	R400
Code name	GT200	R480
Launch date	16 June 2008	1 December 2004
Launch price (MSRP)	$649	$279
Place in performance rating	1062	1064
Price now	$522.78
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Value for money (0-100)	2.98
Technical info
Core clock speed	1296 MHz	507 MHz
CUDA cores	240
Floating-point performance	622.1 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	65 nm	130 nm
Maximum GPU temperature	105 °C
Pipelines	240
Texture fill rate	48.2 billion / sec	6.08 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	236 Watt
Transistor count	1,400 million	160 million
Video outputs and ports
Audio input for HDMI	S / PDIF
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video, HDTVDual Link DVI	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
Multi monitor support
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Height	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Length	10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
SLI options	2-way3-way
Supplementary power connectors	6-pin & 8-pin	1x 6-pin
API support
DirectX	10.0	9.0b
OpenGL	2.1	2.0
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	256 MB
Memory bandwidth	141.7 GB / s	33.3 GB / s
Memory bus width	512 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1107 MHz	1040 MHz
Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR3
Technologies
3D Vision
CUDA
SLI