Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU vs Radeon R9 280X

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking	350	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	5.55	no data
Power efficiency	4.22	no data
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	no data
GPU code name	Tahiti	no data
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	8 October 2013 (11 years ago)	17 January 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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	2048	38
Boost clock speed	1000 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	4,313 million	no data
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	53 Watt
Texture fill rate	128.0	no data
Floating-point processing power	4.096 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	32	no data
TMUs	128	no data

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).

Laptop size	no data	medium sized
Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	no data
Length	275 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin	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	GDDR5	LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	no data
Memory bus width	384 Bit	no data
Memory bandwidth	288 GB/s	no data
Shared memory	-	+

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	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	no data
Eyefinity	+	-
HDMI	+	-
DisplayPort support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration	+	-
CrossFire	+	-
FreeSync	+	-
HD3D	+	-
LiquidVR	+	-
TressFX	+	-
TrueAudio	+	-
UVD	+	-
DDMA audio	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	no data
Shader Model	5.1	no data
OpenGL	4.6	no data
OpenCL	1.2	no data
Vulkan	+	-

Pros & cons summary

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Recency	8 October 2013	17 January 2023
Chip lithography	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	250 Watt	53 Watt

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