Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 618 | 1555 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 1.41 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 4.81 | 0.07 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | Celsius (1999−2005) |
| GPU code name | Cape Verde | NV18 C1 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Workstation |
| Release date | 15 February 2012 (13 years ago) | 31 May 2005 (19 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $159 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.
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 cores | 640 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 1000 MHz | 250 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,500 million | 29 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 150 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 80 Watt | 10 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 40.00 | 1.000 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.28 TFLOPS | no data |
| ROPs | 16 | 2 |
| TMUs | 40 | 4 |
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).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | AGP 8x |
| Length | 210 mm | 168 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | None |
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 | GDDR5 | DDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 64 MB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 64 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1125 MHz | 200 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 72 GB/s | 3.2 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 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x DMS-59 |
| Eyefinity | + | - |
| HDMI | + | - |
API and SDK compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 8.0 |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | no data |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 1.3 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark score.
Passmark
This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.
Gaming performance
Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.
Average FPS across all PC games
Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:
Cost per frame, $
FPS performance in popular games
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score |
5.44 |
0.01 |
| Recency |
15 February 2012 |
31 May 2005 |
| Maximum RAM amount |
2 GB |
64 MB |
| Chip lithography |
28 nm |
150 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) |
80 Watt |
10 Watt |
HD 7770 has a 54300% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 435.7% more advanced lithography process.
NVS 280 SD, on the other hand, has 700% lower power consumption.
The Radeon HD 7770 is our recommended choice as it beats the Quadro NVS 280 SD in performance tests.
Be aware that Radeon HD 7770 is a desktop card while Quadro NVS 280 SD is a workstation one.
