GeForce RTX 4090 vs GTX 280M SLI

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 280M SLI with GeForce RTX 4090, including specs and performance data.

GTX 280M SLI
2009
2 GB GDDR3, 150 Watt
3.44

RTX 4090 outperforms GTX 280M SLI by a whopping 2807% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking7211
Place by popularitynot in top-1005
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data18.80
Power efficiency1.6415.87
ArchitectureG9x (2007−2010)Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code nameN10E-GTXAD102
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date2 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 cores25616384
Core clock speed585 MHz2235 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2520 MHz
Number of transistors1508 Million76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt450 Watt
Texture fill rateno data1,290
Floating-point processing powerno data82.58 TFLOPS
ROPsno data176
TMUsno data512
Tensor Coresno data512
Ray Tracing Coresno data128

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 sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 4.0 x16
Lengthno data304 mm
Widthno data3-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 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 typeGDDR3GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount2 GB24 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed950 MHz1313 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data1.01 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 Connectorsno data1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX1012 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Modelno data6.8
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data3.0
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 HD9−10
−2878%
268
+2878%
1440p7−8
−2843%
206
+2843%
4K4−5
−3525%
145
+3525%

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 2878% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 4090 is 2843% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 4090 is 3525% 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.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M SLI
GeForce GTX 280M SLI
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
GeForce RTX 4090

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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3.7 13912 votes

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Questions & comments

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