GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 560, which comes with GPU clock speed of 810 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1001 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 86 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 280 should theoretically be a little bit better than the GeForce GTX 560 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
	Difference: 13568 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 will be a small bit (more or less 6%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 560. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (6%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is much (more or less 35%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6656 (35%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.