GeForce RTX 4090 vs GTX 280M SLI

Place in the ranking	728	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	18.83
Power efficiency	1.57	15.23
Architecture	G9x (2007−2010)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	N10E-GTX	AD102
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	2 March 2009 (15 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	256	16384
Core clock speed	585 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	1508 Million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	1,290
Floating-point processing power	no data	82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	176
TMUs	no data	512
Tensor Cores	no data	512
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	128

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	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 16-pin

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	GDDR3	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	950 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	1.01 TB/s
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	no data	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.8
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	-	1.3
CUDA	+	8.9

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 280M SLI 3.44

RTX 4090 100.00
+2807%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 280M SLI 9435

RTX 4090 137609
+1358%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	8−9 −3138%	259 +3138%
1440p	6−7 −3233%	200 +3233%
4K	4−5 −3475%	143 +3475%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	6.17
1440p	no data	8.00
4K	no data	11.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

−3650%

225
+3650%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −2250%	235 +2250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −14250%	287 +14250%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −3967%	240−250 +3967%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1400%	120−130 +1400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −3600%	222 +3600%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −2133%	200−210 +2133%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1432%	290−300 +1432%
Hitman 3	8−9 −1513%	120−130 +1513%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1367%	350−400 +1367%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −3000%	150−160 +3000%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −1450%	120−130 +1450%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −3454%	450−500 +3454%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −285%	150−160 +285%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1930%	200−210 +1930%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −12300%	248 +12300%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −3967%	240−250 +3967%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1400%	120−130 +1400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −3467%	214 +3467%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −2133%	200−210 +2133%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1432%	290−300 +1432%
Hitman 3	8−9 −1513%	120−130 +1513%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1367%	350−400 +1367%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −3000%	150−160 +3000%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −1450%	120−130 +1450%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −4115%	548 +4115%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −1507%	240−250 +1507%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −285%	150−160 +285%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1690%	179 +1690%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −10900%	220 +10900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1400%	120−130 +1400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −3400%	210 +3400%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1432%	290−300 +1432%
Hitman 3	8−9 −1513%	120−130 +1513%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1542%	394 +1542%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −4062%	541 +4062%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −1933%	305 +1933%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −283%	153 +283%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9

−1450%

120−130
+1450%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 −2667%	160−170 +2667%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −2140%	110−120 +2140%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −5067%	155 +5067%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −4000%	80−85 +4000%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −7600%	154 +7600%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −2000%	80−85 +2000%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	270−280
Hitman 3	8−9 −1625%	130−140 +1625%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −4750%	388 +4750%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −13300%	268 +13300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	20−22 −1100%	240−250 +1100%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−1743%

120−130
+1743%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −4300%	85−90 +4300%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −3350%	65−70 +3350%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −5900%	120 +5900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −11900%	120 +11900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −5100%	50−55 +5100%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	80
Far Cry 5	1−2 −4900%	50−55 +4900%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −25500%	250−260 +25500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −11600%	117 +11600%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−2675%

110−120
+2675%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	183 +0%	183 +0%
Metro Exodus	152 +0%	152 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	504 +0%	504 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	105 +0%	105 +0%
Metro Exodus	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	281 +0%	281 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

282

+0%

282

+0%

This is how GTX 280M SLI and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 3138% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 3233% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 3475% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Forza Horizon 4, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 4090 is 25500% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 4090 is ahead in 62 tests (89%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.44	100.00
Recency	2 March 2009	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	450 Watt

GTX 280M SLI has 200% lower power consumption.

RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 2807% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 13 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 1000% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 280M SLI in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 280M SLI is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 4090 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.