Quadro NVS 120M vs GeForce GTX 280

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking	699	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.25	no data
Architecture	Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)	Curie (2003−2013)
GPU code name	GT200	G72M
Market segment	Desktop	Mobile workstation
Release date	16 June 2008 (16 years ago)	1 June 2006 (18 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$649	no data
Current price	$159 (0.2x MSRP)	$99

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores	240	7
CUDA cores	240	no data
Core clock speed	602 MHz	3 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	450 MHz
Number of transistors	1,400 million	112 million
Manufacturing process technology	65 nm	90 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	236 Watt	10 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	105 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	48.2 billion/sec	1.800
Floating-point performance	622.1 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 280 and Quadro NVS 120M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	MXM-III
Length	10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)	no data
Height	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	6-pin & 8-pin	no data
SLI options	+	no data

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 type	GDDR3	DDR-3
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	256 MB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1107 MHz	1400 MHz
Memory bandwidth	141.7 GB/s	11.2 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

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 Connectors	HDTVDual Link DVI	No outputs
Multi monitor support	+	no data
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
Audio input for HDMI	S/PDIF	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1 (10_0)	9.0c (9_3)
Shader Model	4.0	3.0
OpenGL	2.1	2.1
OpenCL	1.1	N/A
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	+	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

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Pros & cons summary

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Recency	16 June 2008	1 June 2006
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	256 MB
Chip lithography	65 nm	90 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	236 Watt	10 Watt

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