GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile vs Radeon R9 280

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 280 with GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile, including specs and performance data.

R9 280
2014
3 GB GDDR5, 200 Watt
14.42

RTX 2050 Mobile outperforms R9 280 by a substantial 30% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking365296
Place by popularitynot in top-10020
Cost-effectiveness evaluation5.41no data
Power efficiency4.9428.46
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameTahitiGA107
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date4 March 2014 (10 years ago)17 December 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$279 no data

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 cores17922048
Core clock speedno data1185 MHz
Boost clock speed933 MHz1477 MHz
Number of transistors4,313 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Watt45 Watt
Texture fill rate104.594.53
Floating-point processing power3.344 TFLOPS6.05 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs11264
Tensor Coresno data256
Ray Tracing Coresno data32

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 sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pinno 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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount3 GB4 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth240 GB/s112.0 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
Eyefinity+-
HDMI++
G-SYNC support-+

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudio+-
UVD+-
DDMA audio+no data
VR Readyno data+

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.16.6
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan+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.

R9 280 14.42
RTX 2050 Mobile 18.68
+29.5%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

R9 280 8020
RTX 2050 Mobile 8965
+11.8%

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 HD30−35
−40%
42
+40%
1440p24−27
−41.7%
34
+41.7%
4K18−20
−38.9%
25
+38.9%

Cost per frame, $

1080p9.30no data
1440p11.63no data
4K15.50no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 49
+0%
49
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 42
+0%
42
+0%
Battlefield 5 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 42
+0%
42
+0%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%
Hitman 3 44
+0%
44
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%
Metro Exodus 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+0%
85−90
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21
+0%
21
+0%
Battlefield 5 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 30
+0%
30
+0%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%
Hitman 3 43
+0%
43
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%
Metro Exodus 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 62
+0%
62
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+0%
85−90
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7
+0%
7
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 25
+0%
25
+0%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%
Hitman 3 39
+0%
39
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 55
+0%
55
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 33
+0%
33
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 18
+0%
18
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 100−110
+0%
100−110
+0%
Hitman 3 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Metro Exodus 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 47
+0%
47
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Hitman 3 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100
+0%
95−100
+0%
Metro Exodus 20−22
+0%
20−22
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Far Cry 5 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22
+0%
20−22
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%

This is how R9 280 and RTX 2050 Mobile compete in popular games:

  • RTX 2050 Mobile is 40% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 2050 Mobile is 42% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 2050 Mobile is 39% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 14.42 18.68
Recency 4 March 2014 17 December 2021
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 45 Watt

RTX 2050 Mobile has a 29.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 344.4% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 280 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 280 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile is a notebook 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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AMD Radeon R9 280
Radeon R9 280
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile
GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile

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.


3.6 399 votes

Rate Radeon R9 280 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3.7 2195 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.