RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB vs Radeon R9 280

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking337not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation10.99no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2012−2020)Ampere (2020−2022)
GPU code nameTahitiGA104
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date4 March 2014 (10 years ago)12 April 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$279 no data
Current price$91 (0.3x MSRP)no data

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 cores17924096
Boost clock speed933 MHz1170 MHz
Number of transistors4,313 million17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Watt70 Watt
Texture fill rate104.5149.8
Floating-point performance3,344 gflopsno data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 280 and RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB 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.

Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pinno 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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount3 GB12 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz14 GB/s
Memory bandwidth240 GB/s336.0 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortPortable Device Dependent
Eyefinity1no data
HDMI+no data
DisplayPort support-no data

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration-no data
CrossFire1no data
Enduro-no data
FreeSync1no data
HD3D+no data
LiquidVR1no data
PowerTune-no data
TressFX1no data
TrueAudio+no data
ZeroCore-no data
UVD+no data
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.16.7
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan+1.3
Mantle-no data
CUDAno data8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 4 March 2014 12 April 2021
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 12 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 70 Watt

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 280 and RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 280 is a desktop card while RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB is a notebook one.


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 Radeon R9 280
Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB
RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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


3.6 377 votes

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3.4 12 votes

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Questions & comments

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