AMD Radeon R9 280
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
AMD Radeon R9 280
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M

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 GTX 950M.

237
Place in performance rating
407
no data
Value for money (0-100)
5.29
GCN 1.0
Architecture
Maxwell
Tahiti
Code name
GM107
Desktop
Type
Laptop
4 March 2014 (7 years ago)
Release date
12 March 2015 (6 years ago)
$279
Launch price (MSRP)
no data
$305 (1.1x MSRP)
Price now
$797
reference
Design
no data
10.12
Value for money
1.41
Tahiti
GPU code name
N16P-GT
Desktop
Market segment
Laptop

Technical specs

Which GPU is better between AMD Radeon R9 280  vs  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 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
640
no data
Core clock speed
914 MHz
933 MHz
Boost Clock
1124 MHz
4,313 million
Transistor count
1,870 million
28 nm
Manufacturing process technology
28 nm
200 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
75 Watt
104.5
Texture fill rate
44.96
3,344 gflops
Floating-point performance
1,439 gflops
no data
CUDA cores
640
1792
Pipelines / CUDA cores
640
933 MHz
Boost clock speed
1124 MHz
4,313 million
Number of transistors
1,870 million
200 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
75 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Let’s discuss how graphics cards AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M come in different sizes (length), connector types and types of interfaces.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 3.0 x8
275 mm
Length
no data
1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Supplementary power connectors
no data
no data
Laptop size
medium sized
no data
SLI options
+
PCIe 3.0
Bus support
PCI Express 3.0

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 GTX 950M.

GDDR5
Memory type
DDR3 or GDDR5
3 GB
Maximum RAM amount
4 GB
384 Bit
Memory bus width
128 Bit
1250 MHz
Memory clock speed
1000 or 2500 MHz
240 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
32 or 80 GB/s
no data
Shared memory
-

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 GTX 950M.

2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Display Connectors
No outputs
1
Eyefinity
no data
+
HDMI
+
-
DisplayPort support
no data
no data
VGA аnalog display support
+
no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support
+

Technologies

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

no data
GPU Boost
2.0
no data
CUDA
+
no data
GeForce Experience
+
no data
Optimus
+
no data
Ansel
+
no data
GameStream
+
no data
GeForce ShadowPlay
+
no data
GameWorks
+
-
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
no data
BatteryBoost
+
no data
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder
+
-
Enduro
no data
+
UVD
no data
no data
Adaptive VSync
+
no data
DSR
+

API support

The confrontation between the two contenders AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 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
12 (11_0)
4.6
OpenGL
4.5
+
Vulkan
1.1.126
5.1
Shader Model
5.1
1.2
OpenCL
1.2
-
Mantle
no data

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for AMD Radeon R9 280 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 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 GTX 950M 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 GTX 950M
Death Stranding (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
F1 2020 (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 79.9 38.4 28.8 18.5 12.6
Gears Tactics (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 98.1 37.5 20.5 14.8 10
Doom Eternal (2020) AMD Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
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

13.56% faster in synthetic tests

Cheaper ($305 (1.1x MSRP) vs $797)

More pipelines (1792 vs 640)

More memory bandwidth (240 GB/s vs 32 or 80 GB/s)

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M

Less power consumption (75 Watt vs 200 Watt)

More maximum RAM amount (4 GB vs 3 GB)

So, AMD Radeon R9 280 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M?

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

AMD Radeon R9 280 versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M performance benchmarks comparison

Overall benchmark performance

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Ice Storm GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Ice Storm GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Score

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

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

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

Benchmark 3DMark 11 Performance GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark 11 Performance GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Vantage Performance

Benchmark 3DMark Vantage Performance: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Vantage Performance test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Unigine Heaven 3.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 3.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 3.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Octane Render OctaneBench

Benchmark Octane Render OctaneBench: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Octane Render OctaneBench 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
3.9 Out of 90 Hitesti Score