GeForce GTX 1050 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 280, which comes with core clock speeds of 602 MHz on the GPU, and 1107 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 161 Watts (215%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 280 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GTX 1050 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1050		114688 MB/sec
	Difference: 27008 (24%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 should be a small bit (more or less 12%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050		54160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (12%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 should be quite a bit (approximately 125%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 280, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050		43328 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24064 (125%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.