GeForce GTX 490 vs GTX 280

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking739not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.12no data
Power efficiency0.97no data
ArchitectureTesla 2.0 (2007−2013)Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code nameGT200GF100
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date16 June 2008 (16 years ago)no data
Launch price (MSRP)$649 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores240480
Core clock speed602 MHz608 MHz
Number of transistors1,400 million3,100 million
Manufacturing process technology65 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)236 Watt365 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature105 °Cno data
Texture fill rate48.1636.48
Floating-point processing power0.6221 TFLOPS1.166 TFLOPS
ROPs3248
TMUs8060

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).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length267 mm279 mm
Height4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin2x 8-pin
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB1536 MB
Memory bus width512 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed1107 MHz854 MHz
Memory bandwidth141.7 GB/s164.0 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 ConnectorsHDTVDual Link DVI3x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
Multi monitor support+no data
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
Audio input for HDMIS/PDIFno data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12 (11_0)
Shader Model4.05.1
OpenGL2.14.6
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA+2.0

Pros & cons summary


Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1536 MB
Chip lithography 65 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 236 Watt 365 Watt

GTX 280 has 54.7% lower power consumption.

GTX 490, on the other hand, has a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 62.5% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 490. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
GeForce GTX 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 490
GeForce GTX 490

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.5 107 votes

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3.5 30 votes

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Questions & comments

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