GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 285 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 285 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 648 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a frequency of 1242 MHz on this specific model. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB will be 12% quicker than the GeForce GTX 280 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 17280 (12%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB will be just a bit (approximately 8%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3680 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 285 1GB is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1472 (8%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per 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 - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.