Radeon R9 280 vs Ellesmere

Aggregate performance score

Ellesmere
19.59
+36.1%

Ellesmere outperforms Radeon R9 280 by a substantial 36% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in performance ranking267339
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data10.99
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)GCN 1.0 (2012−2020)
GPU code nameEllesmereTahiti
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designno datareference
Release dateno data4 March 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$279
Current price$16.24 $91 (0.3x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores23041792
Boost clock speedno data933 MHz
Number of transistors5,700 million4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data200 Watt
Texture fill rateno data104.5
Floating-point performanceno data3,344 gflops

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportno dataPCIe 3.0
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data275 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeno dataGDDR5
Maximum RAM amountno data3 GB
Memory bus widthno data384 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1250 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data240 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectorsno data2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinityno data1
HDMIno data+
DisplayPort supportno data-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAccelerationno data-
CrossFireno data1
Endurono data-
FreeSyncno data1
HD3Dno data+
LiquidVRno data1
PowerTuneno data-
TressFXno data1
TrueAudiono data+
ZeroCoreno data-
UVDno data+
DDMA audiono data+

API compatibility

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 (12_0)DirectX® 12
Shader Model6.75.1
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.11.2
Vulkan1.3+
Mantleno data-

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 19.59 14.39
Chip lithography 14 nm 28 nm

The Ellesmere is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 280 in performance tests.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Ellesmere
Ellesmere
AMD Radeon R9 280
Radeon R9 280

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Community ratings

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2.2 1674 votes

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Questions & comments

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