Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 vs AMD Radeon R9 280
Combined performance score
R9 280
2014
3072 MB GDDR5
14.36
RTX 2060
2019
6144 MB GDDR6
36.53
+154%
GeForce RTX 2060 outperforms Radeon R9 280 by 154% based on our aggregated benchmark results.
General info
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 333 | 122 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 23 |
| Value for money | 10.99 | 21.02 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | Turing (2018−2021) |
| GPU code name | Tahiti | Turing TU106 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | reference | no data |
| Release date | 4 March 2014 (10 years old) | 6 January 2019 (5 years old) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $279 | $349 |
| Current price | $91 (0.3x MSRP) | $397 (1.1x MSRP) |
Value for money
RTX 2060 has 91% better value for money than R9 280.
Technical specs
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 | 1792 | 1920 |
| Core clock speed | no data | 1320 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 933 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 4,313 million | 10,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 200 Watt | 175 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 104.5 | 201.6 |
| Floating-point performance | 3,344 gflops | no data |
Size and 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 support | PCIe 3.0 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 275 mm | 229 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin |
Memory
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 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1250 MHz | 14000 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 240 GB/s | 336.0 GB/s |
| Shared memory | no data | - |
Video outputs and ports
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 | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C |
| Eyefinity | 1 | no data |
| HDMI | + | + |
| DisplayPort support | - | no data |
| G-SYNC support | no data | + |
Technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| AppAcceleration | - | no data |
| CrossFire | 1 | no data |
| Enduro | - | no data |
| FreeSync | 1 | no data |
| HD3D | + | no data |
| LiquidVR | 1 | no data |
| PowerTune | - | no data |
| TressFX | 1 | no data |
| TrueAudio | + | no data |
| ZeroCore | - | no data |
| UVD | + | no data |
| DDMA audio | + | no data |
| VR Ready | no data | + |
API support
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | DirectX® 12 | 12 |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | + | 1.2.131 |
| Mantle | - | no data |
| CUDA | no data | 7.5 |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
GeForce RTX 2060 outperforms Radeon R9 280 by 154% based on our aggregated benchmark results.
Passmark
This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.
Benchmark coverage: 25%
GeForce RTX 2060 outperforms Radeon R9 280 by 154% in Passmark.
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics
Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.
Benchmark coverage: 14%
GeForce RTX 2060 outperforms Radeon R9 280 by 141% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.
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:
| Full HD | 45−50
−169%
| 121
+169%
|
| 1440p | 27−30
−181%
| 76
+181%
|
| 4K | 18−20
−178%
| 50
+178%
|
Advantages and disadvantages
| Performance score | 14.36 | 36.53 |
| Recency | 4 March 2014 | 6 January 2019 |
| Cost | $279 | $349 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 6 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 200 Watt | 175 Watt |
The GeForce RTX 2060 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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