Radeon HD 7950 vs Radeon R9 280X

Radeon HD 7950
Memory: 3072Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 31 Jan 2012
Radeon HD 7950
Radeon R9 280X
Memory: 3072Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 8 Oct 2013
Radeon R9 280X

Summary

Synthetic performance index

  • Radeon HD 7950
    100%
  • Radeon R9 280X
    120%

Relative performance

Gaming performance index

  • Radeon HD 7950
    100%
  • Radeon R9 280X
    135%

Relative performance

Reasons to consider Radeon HD 7950

50 watts lower power draw. This might be a strong point if your current power supply is not enough to handle the Radeon R9 280X .
Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Supports Mantle
Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications

Reasons to consider Radeon R9 280X

35% higher gaming performance.
This is a much newer product, it might have better long term support.
Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Supports Mantle
Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications

Radeon R9 280X

HWBench recommends Radeon R9 280X

The Radeon R9 280X is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (7 combinations of games and resolutions).


Specifications

Core Configuration

Radeon HD 7950Radeon R9 280X
GPU NameTahiti (Tahiti PRO)vsTahiti (Tahiti XTL)
Fab Process28 nmvs28 nm
Die Size352 mm²vs352 mm²
Transistors4,313 millionvs4,313 million
Shaders1792vs2048
Compute Units28vs32
Core clock800 MHzvs850 MHz
ROPs32vs32
TMUs112vs128

Memory Configuration

Radeon HD 7950Radeon R9 280X
Memory TypeGDDR5vsGDDR5
Bus Width384 bitvs384 bit
Memory Speed1250 MHz
5000 MHz effective
vs1500 MHz
6000 MHz effective
Memory Size3072 Mbvs3072 Mb

Additional details

Radeon HD 7950Radeon R9 280X
TDP200 wattsvs250 watts
Release Date31 Jan 2012vs8 Oct 2013

Raw Performance comparison

Pixel Rate

  • Radeon HD 7950
    25.60 GP/s
  • Radeon R9 280X
    27.20 GP/s

GigaPixels - higher is better

Texel Rate

  • Radeon HD 7950
    89.60 GT/s
  • Radeon R9 280X
    109.00 GT/s

GigaTexels - higher is better

Memory bandwidth

  • Radeon HD 7950
    240.00 GB/s
  • Radeon R9 280X
    288.00 GB/s

GB/s - higher is better

Single precision performance

  • Radeon HD 7950
    2867.00 GFLOPs
  • Radeon R9 280X
    3482.00 GFLOPs

GFLOPs - higher is better

Synthetic benchmarks

3DMark 11

  • Radeon HD 7950
    9130
  • Radeon R9 280X
    10960

Points (higher is better)

Game benchmarks

Battlefield 4

DX11, Ultra Quality,2x MSAA,16x AF, HBAO

  • Radeon HD 7950
    62
  • Radeon R9 280X
    72

FPS (higher is better)

Crysis 3

DX11,Very High Quality, FXAA

  • Radeon HD 7950
    23
  • Radeon R9 280X
    42

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield Hardline

DX11, Ultra, 4x MSAA, 16x AF, HBAO

  • Radeon HD 7950
    24
  • Radeon R9 280X
    33

FPS (higher is better)

Bioshock Infinite

DX11, Ultra, DDOD, FXAA

  • Radeon HD 7950
    36
  • Radeon R9 280X
    48

FPS (higher is better)

Grand Theft Auto V

DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF, 2xMSAA

  • Radeon HD 7950
    35
  • Radeon R9 280X
    47

FPS (higher is better)

Battlefield Hardline

DX11, Ultra Quality, 4xMSAA,EP3 Gator Bait

  • Radeon HD 7950
    34
  • Radeon R9 280X
    40

FPS (higher is better)

Grand Theft Auto V

DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF, 2xMSAA

  • Radeon HD 7950
    49
  • Radeon R9 280X
    63

FPS (higher is better)