Quadro RTX A6000 vs GeForce GTX 280M

Place in the ranking	978	37
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	10.36
Power efficiency	1.38	13.62
Architecture	Tesla (2006−2010)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	G92	GA102
Market segment	Laptop	Workstation
Release date	3 March 2009 (15 years ago)	5 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$4,649

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	128	10752
Core clock speed	585 MHz	1410 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1800 MHz
Number of transistors	754 million	28,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	65 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	37.44	604.8
Floating-point processing power	0.3745 TFLOPS	38.71 TFLOPS
Gigaflops	562	no data
ROPs	16	112
TMUs	64	336
Tensor Cores	no data	336
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	84

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
Bus support	PCI-E 2.0	no data
Interface	MXM-IV	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	8-pin EPS
SLI options	+	-
MXM Type	MXM 3.0 Type-B	no data

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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	48 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	Up to 950 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	61 GB/s	768.0 GB/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	HDMIDual Link DVISingle Link DVIDisplayPortLVDSVGA	4x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	-
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
Audio input for HDMI	S/PDIF	no data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Power management

8.0

no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1 (10_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	4.0	6.7
OpenGL	2.1	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	+	8.6

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 1.49

RTX A6000 58.63
+3835%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 280M 575

RTX A6000 22617
+3833%

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 6672

RTX A6000 89510
+1242%

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	4−5 −4300%	176 +4300%
1440p	3−4 −4400%	135 +4400%
4K	2−3 −5750%	117 +5750%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	26.41
1440p	no data	34.44
4K	no data	39.74

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

−1750%

70−75
+1750%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −1367%	85−90 +1367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −2000%	80−85 +2000%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1750%	70−75 +1750%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4350%	85−90 +4350%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 −2450%	100−110 +2450%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 −4825%	190−200 +4825%
Hitman 3	6−7 −1383%	85−90 +1383%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −1040%	170−180 +1040%
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −3067%	95−100 +3067%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −1825%	150−160 +1825%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −1367%	85−90 +1367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −2000%	80−85 +2000%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1750%	70−75 +1750%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4350%	85−90 +4350%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 −2450%	100−110 +2450%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 −4825%	190−200 +4825%
Hitman 3	6−7 −1383%	85−90 +1383%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −1040%	170−180 +1040%
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −3067%	95−100 +3067%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −3563%	293 +3563%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −682%	85−90 +682%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −1367%	85−90 +1367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −2000%	80−85 +2000%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1750%	70−75 +1750%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4350%	85−90 +4350%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 −4825%	190−200 +4825%
Hitman 3	6−7 −1383%	85−90 +1383%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −1393%	224 +1393%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −3500%	288 +3500%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −1536%	180 +1536%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −300%	130−140 +300%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−3067%

95−100
+3067%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −3950%	80−85 +3950%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −3100%	60−65 +3100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −4400%	45−50 +4400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	45−50
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −3300%	30−35 +3300%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −2300%	45−50 +2300%
Hitman 3	7−8 −686%	55−60 +686%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 −4100%	210 +4100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −6100%	60−65 +6100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	7−8 −2729%	190−200 +2729%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−1700%

70−75
+1700%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

1−2

−3400%

35−40
+3400%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −2800%	27−30 +2800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −2600%	27−30 +2600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	27−30
Far Cry 5	0−1	24−27

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−1133%

35−40
+1133%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Battlefield 5	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Battlefield 5	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

70−75

+0%

70−75

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Metro Exodus	63 +0%	63 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	247 +0%	247 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Hitman 3	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	180−190 +0%	180−190 +0%
Metro Exodus	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	146 +0%	146 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	149 +0%	149 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%

This is how GTX 280M and RTX A6000 compete in popular games:

RTX A6000 is 4300% faster in 1080p
RTX A6000 is 4400% faster in 1440p
RTX A6000 is 5750% faster in 4K

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX A6000 is 6100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX A6000 is ahead in 49 tests (71%)
there's a draw in 20 tests (29%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.49	58.63
Recency	3 March 2009	5 October 2020
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	48 GB
Chip lithography	65 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	300 Watt

GTX 280M has 300% lower power consumption.

RTX A6000, on the other hand, has a 3834.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 4700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 712.5% more advanced lithography process.

The Quadro RTX A6000 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 280M in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 280M is a notebook card while Quadro RTX A6000 is a workstation one.

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