ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs GeForce 9800M GTX

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce 9800M GTX and Mobility Radeon HD 4870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

9800M GTX
2008
1 GB GDDR3, 75 Watt
1.18

ATI Mobility HD 4870 outperforms 9800M GTX by an impressive 81% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking1067869
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.05no data
Power efficiency1.08no data
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameG92M98
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date15 July 2008 (16 years ago)9 January 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$328.50 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 cores112800
CUDA cores per GPU112no data
Core clock speed500 MHz550 MHz
Number of transistors754 million956 million
Manufacturing process technology65 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)75 Wattno data
Texture fill rate28.0022.00
Floating-point processing power0.28 TFLOPS0.88 TFLOPS
Gigaflops420no data
ROPs1616
TMUs5640

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 sizelargelarge
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR3GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount1 GB512 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed800 MHz888 MHz
Memory bandwidth51.2 GB/s56.83 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 ConnectorsNo outputsNo outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.04.1
OpenGL3.33.3
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA+-

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.

9800M GTX 1.18
ATI Mobility HD 4870 2.13
+80.5%

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.

9800M GTX 4825
ATI Mobility HD 4870 6631
+37.4%

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 HD14−16
−100%
28
+100%

Cost per frame, $

1080p23.46no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−40%
7−8
+40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Far Cry New Dawn 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2
−800%
9−10
+800%
Hitman 3 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
−28.6%
18−20
+28.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−25%
10−11
+25%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−12.5%
35−40
+12.5%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−40%
7−8
+40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Far Cry New Dawn 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2
−800%
9−10
+800%
Hitman 3 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
−28.6%
18−20
+28.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−25%
10−11
+25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−12.5%
35−40
+12.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−40%
7−8
+40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2
−800%
9−10
+800%
Hitman 3 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
−28.6%
18−20
+28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−25%
10−11
+25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−12.5%
35−40
+12.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 0−1 1−2
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 4−5
−50%
6−7
+50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 0−1 1−2
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6
−140%
12−14
+140%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn 0−1 1−2

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 0−1 1−2
Far Cry 5 0−1 1−2

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Watch Dogs: Legion 0−1 0−1

This is how 9800M GTX and ATI Mobility HD 4870 compete in popular games:

  • ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 100% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • ATI Mobility HD 4870 is ahead in 44 tests (90%)
  • there's a draw in 5 tests (10%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 1.18 2.13
Recency 15 July 2008 9 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 65 nm 55 nm

9800M GTX has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

ATI Mobility HD 4870, on the other hand, has a 80.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 months, and a 18.2% more advanced lithography process.

The Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 9800M GTX in performance tests.


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

Vote for your favorite

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NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX
GeForce 9800M GTX
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Mobility Radeon HD 4870

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.


2.3 3 votes

Rate GeForce 9800M GTX on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3.7 9 votes

Rate Mobility Radeon HD 4870 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.