NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q vs AMD Radeon R9 280X

VS
Performance
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q24% better
13,333.513% of 104,598
Radeon R9 280X
10,79210% of 104,598

The GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q has 24% better performance than the Radeon R9 280X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q
No data available
Radeon R9 280X
36.0922% of 161.45

The Radeon R9 280X has 22% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: AMD Radeon RX 7600.

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Summary

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About the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q is an end-of-life mobile graphics card that released in Q2 2017. It is built on the Pascal GPU microarchitecture (codename GP106) and is manufactured on a 16 nm process.

Memory

The GTX 1060 Max-Q has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 2,002 MHz memory clock and a 192 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 192.2 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The GTX 1060 Max-Q includes 1,280 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,063 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,480 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 80 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 48 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GPU has a thermal design power (TDP) of 80 W. A power supply not strong enough to handle this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

Benchmark Performance

The GTX 1060 Max-Q has the 153rd best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 12.75% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

About the AMD Radeon R9 280X GPU

The AMD Radeon R9 280X is an end-of-life desktop graphics card that released in Q4 2013 with a MSRP of $299. It is built on the GCN 1.0 GPU microarchitecture (codename Tahiti) and is manufactured on a 28 nm process.

Memory

The R9 280X has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 1,500 MHz memory clock and a 384 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 288 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The R9 280X includes 2,048 stream processors (SPs), the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 850 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,000 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 128 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 32 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The R9 280X occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2 display connections. AMD recommends a power supply of at least 600 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 250 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The R9 280X has the 171st best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 10.32% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 10,792 score and $299 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 36.09. This is the 73rd best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

General Info

General overview of the GPU, including details like its manufacturer, release date, launch price, and current production status.

InfoGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitecturePascalGCN 1.0
Market SegmentMobileDesktop
Release DateQ2 2017Q4 2013
Launch Price (MSRP)--$299
Production StatusEnd-of-lifeEnd-of-life
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

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Select a game to compare FPS metrics

Display FPS for Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
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Assassin´s Creed Origins
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Destiny 2
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Fortnite
Display FPS for Final Fantasy XV Benchmark
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark
Display FPS for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Display FPS for Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider

FPS Benchmarks

This table showcases the average frame rate (FPS) achieved both GPUs in at various resolutions. Frame rate is a crucial indicator of how smoothly the GPU can run the game. A higher FPS generally translates to a smoother gameplay experience.

  • Frames Per Second
FPS data for Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
Low - 720p
85 FPS
--
Medium - 1080p
62 FPS
--
High - 1080p
54 FPS
--
Ultra - 1080p
40 FPS
--
QHD - 1440p
--
--
4K UHD - 2160p
12 FPS
--
FPS Source: Notebookcheck

Compare Frames Per Second (FPS)

The average frame rate (FPS) in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, higher FPS results in a smoother gameplay experience.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q orRadeon R9 280X

Compare Cost Per Frame

The average cost per frame in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. Generally, a lower cost per frame implies better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q orRadeon R9 280X
GPUCost Per Frame
Our database does not have enough data to compare the FPS per dollar with other GPUs.

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q24% better
13,333.513% of 104,598
Radeon R9 280X
10,79210% of 104,598

The GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q has 24% better performance than the Radeon R9 280X for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q is ranked 153rd with a score of 13,333.5, and the Radeon R9 280X is ranked 171st with a score of 10,792.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q
No data available
Radeon R9 280X
36.0922% of 161.45

The Radeon R9 280X has 55% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

Radeon R9 280X's 36.09 performance per dollar ranks it 0th among the other benchmarked GPUs in our database.

Relative Performance

The average score in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q or
GPUBenchmark Performance
Radeon RX 5300M14,351+8%
GeForce GTX 165013,645+2%
Quadro T2000 Mobile13,523.5+1%
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q13,333.5
GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile13,266-1%
GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile13,131.5-2%
Radeon R9 38012,191-9%
Radeon R9 280X10,792-19%
GeForce GTX 96010,767.5-19%
GeForce GTX 68010,216.5-23%

Relative Value For Money

The average performance per dollar in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. A higher score implies a better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q orRadeon R9 280X
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
GeForce GTX 96054.11+50%
GeForce GTX 95052.52+46%
GeForce GTX 97048.73+35%
Radeon R9 390X41.83+16%
GeForce GTX 750 Ti36.09+0%
Radeon R9 280X36.09
GeForce GTX 98032.07-11%
GeForce GTX 76031.98-11%
Radeon R9 FURY31.95-11%
Radeon R9 290X29.45-18%

Benchmark Scores

This table showcases the average performance scores achieved by both GPUs across industry-standard benchmark tests. These scores provide a valuable insight into overall performance. Powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

  • Popular
BenchmarkGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
3,324
(+50.41%)
2,210
3DMark Time Spy Score
3,415
(+42.71%)
2,393
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
74,101
(+42.18%)
52,117
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
10,430
(+25.01%)
8,343
3DMark 11 Performance Score
11,973
(+16.91%)
10,241
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
110.6
--
PassMark G3D Mark
7,913
(+28.08%)
6,178
PassMark G2D Mark
403
686
(+70.22%)
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
--
95.2
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

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Graphics Processor

General information about the graphics processing unit like their architecture, manufacturing process size, and transistor count. Newer GPU architectures generally bring efficiency improvements and may introduce technologies that enhance graphical capabilities.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
CodenameGP106Tahiti
ArchitecturePascalGCN 1.0
Process Size16 nm28 nm
Transistors4,400 million4,313 million

Memory Details

Memory specifications like their capacity, bandwidth, and clock speeds. GPU memory stores graphics data like frames, textures, and shadows which helps display rendered images. These specs are crucial for graphics-intense applications like gaming and 3D modeling.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
Memory Size6 GB3 GB
Memory TypeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth192.2 Gb/s288 Gb/s
Memory Clock2,002 MHz1,500 MHz
Memory Interface192 bit384 bit
L1 Cache48 KB16 KB
L2 Cache1,536 KB768 KB

Board Compatibility

Compatibility information like their slot size, bus interface, power consumption, and display support. These specs are useful for verifying compatibility with your motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
Slots--2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)80 W250 W
Suggested PSU--600 W
Power Connectors--1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsDevice DependentDVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2

Cores & Clock Speeds

Processing power information like its cores and clock speed. These specs impact how fast they can process graphics. Each type of core or component serves a specific computational purpose.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
Stream Processors (SP)--2,048
CUDA Cores1,280--
Compute Units (CU)--32
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)10--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)80128
Render Output Units (ROP)4832
Core Clock Speed1,063 MHz850 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,480 MHz1,000 MHz

Theoretical Performance

Theoretical performance numbers derived from the raw specifications of the different components like core count and clock speeds. While these provide a glimpse into peak processing power, they do not represent real-world performance.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
Pixel Fill Rate71.04 GPixel/s32 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate118.4 GTexel/s128 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance3.79 TFLOPS4.1 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance118.4 GFLOPS1,024 GFLOPS

API Support

Graphics API versions supported by these graphics cards. APIs evolve over time, introducing new features and functionalities. Older GPUs may not support recent versions.

SpecGeForce GTX 1060 Max-QRadeon R9 280X
DirectX12 (12_1)12 (11_1)
OpenCL3.02.1 (1.2)
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.86.5 (5.1)

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* Performance rating, performance per dollar, and rankings are based on the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark and MSRP.