AMD Radeon R9 280
VS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
AMD Radeon R9 280
VS
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

General info

The general info section in the graphics cards comparison list contains information about the date of release, type, overall rating and other useful data for identifying winner between AMD Radeon R9 280  vs  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra.

237
Place in performance rating
789
GCN 1.0
Architecture
Tesla
Tahiti
Code name
G80
Desktop
Type
Desktop
4 March 2014 (7 years ago)
Release date
2 May 2007 (14 years ago)
$279
Launch price (MSRP)
$829
$305 (1.1x MSRP)
Price now
$235 (0.3x MSRP)
reference
Design
no data
10.12
Value for money
0.13
Tahiti
GPU code name
G80
Desktop
Market segment
Desktop

Technical specs

Which GPU is better between AMD Radeon R9 280  vs  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra in the fabrication process, power consumption, and also base and turbo frequency of the GPU is the most important part containing in the graphics cards hierarchy.

1792
Pipelines
128
no data
Core clock speed
612 MHz
933 MHz
Boost Clock
no data
4,313 million
Transistor count
681 million
28 nm
Manufacturing process technology
90 nm
200 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
171 Watt
104.5
Texture fill rate
39.2 billion/sec
3,344 gflops
Floating-point performance
387.1 gflops
no data
CUDA cores
612
1792
Pipelines / CUDA cores
128
933 MHz
Boost clock speed
no data
4,313 million
Number of transistors
681 million
200 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
171 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Let’s discuss how graphics cards AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra come in different sizes (length), connector types and types of interfaces.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 1.0 x16
275 mm
Length
270 mm
1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Supplementary power connectors
2x 6-pin
no data
SLI options
+
PCIe 3.0
Bus support
no data

Memory

Graphics cards memory plays important role both in gaming and in applications for graphics. The card will perform much quicker and better, if it has more memory capacity and right memory type. What is the difference between AMD Radeon R9 280 vs NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra.

GDDR5
Memory type
GDDR3
3 GB
Maximum RAM amount
512 MB
384 Bit
Memory bus width
384 Bit
1250 MHz
Memory clock speed
1080 MHz
240 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
103.7 GB/s

Video outputs and ports

Let’s find out the difference in extra ports between two graphics cards. What's the difference between AMD Radeon R9 280 vs NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra.

2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Display Connectors
2x DVI, 1x S-Video
1
Eyefinity
no data
+
HDMI
no data
-
DisplayPort support
no data

Technologies

Let’s have a look what is the difference. It is worthwhile to note that NVIDIA and AMD are using different technologies.

-
AppAcceleration
no data
1
CrossFire
no data
1
FreeSync
no data
+
HD3D
no data
1
LiquidVR
no data
-
PowerTune
no data
1
TressFX
no data
+
TrueAudio
no data
-
ZeroCore
no data
+
DDMA audio
no data
-
Enduro
no data
+
UVD
no data

API support

The confrontation between the two contenders AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra is practically over. The hardware support (API) does not greatly affect the overall performance, it is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and other performance tests. 

DirectX® 12
DirectX
11.1 (10_0)
4.6
OpenGL
3.3
+
Vulkan
no data
5.1
Shader Model
no data
1.2
OpenCL
no data
-
Mantle
no data

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards. The result shows how fast the game will run and whether it can be run on this computer. The different monitor resolutions – from low to 4K – are used for testing. Find out is the AMD Radeon R9 280 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Death Stranding (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
F1 2020 (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Gears Tactics (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Doom Eternal (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Legend
5 Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
? Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.

Advantages of AMD Radeon R9 280

22.76% faster in synthetic tests

More pipelines (1792 vs 128)

Finer manufacturing process technology (28 nm vs 90 nm)

More memory bandwidth (240 GB/s vs 103.7 GB/s)

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Cheaper ($235 (0.3x MSRP) vs $305 (1.1x MSRP))

Less power consumption (171 Watt vs 200 Watt)

More maximum RAM amount (512 MB vs 3 GB)

So, AMD Radeon R9 280 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend AMD Radeon R9 280 .

AMD Radeon R9 280 versus NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra performance benchmarks comparison

Overall benchmark performance

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Passmark

Benchmark Passmark: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Passmark test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

User rating

3.5 Out of 30 Hitesti Score
3.0 Out of 1 Hitesti Score