ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI

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Combined performance score

GTX 460M SLI
4.93
+125%

GeForce GTX 460M SLI outperforms Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 by 125% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking595814
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money2.27no data
ArchitectureFermi (2010−2014)RV6xx (2007−2010)
GPU code nameN11E-GSM88-XT CF
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date3 September 2010 (13 years old)1 September 2008 (15 years old)
Current price$149 no data
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores384640
Core clock speed675 MHz660 MHz
Number of transistorsno data666 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data110 Watt
Texture fill rateno data10.56
Floating-point performanceno data2x 422.4 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 460M SLI and Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop sizelargelarge
Interfaceno dataPCIe 2.0 x16

Memory

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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount2x1536 MB512 MB
Memory bus width192 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz850 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data54.4 GB/s
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

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 dataNo outputs

API support

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

DirectX1110.1 (10_1)
Shader Modelno data4.1
OpenGLno data3.3
OpenCLno dataN/A
Vulkanno dataN/A
CUDA+no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 460M SLI 4.93
+125%
ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 2.19

GeForce GTX 460M SLI outperforms Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 by 125% in our combined benchmark results.


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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 460M SLI 14236
+106%
ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 6895

GeForce GTX 460M SLI outperforms Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 by 106% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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:

900p52
+148%
21−24
−148%
Full HD67
+148%
27−30
−148%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Battlefield 5 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 16−18
+45.5%
10−12
−45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Far Cry 5 10−11
+400%
2−3
−400%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−12
+450%
2−3
−450%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
Hitman 3 10−12
+175%
4−5
−175%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+200%
3−4
−200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14
+50%
8−9
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Battlefield 5 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 16−18
+45.5%
10−12
−45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Far Cry 5 10−11
+400%
2−3
−400%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−12
+450%
2−3
−450%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
Hitman 3 10−12
+175%
4−5
−175%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+200%
3−4
−200%
Metro Exodus 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14
+50%
8−9
−50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Battlefield 5 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Far Cry 5 10−11
+400%
2−3
−400%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−12
+450%
2−3
−450%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Hitman 3 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Metro Exodus 3−4 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Battlefield 5 0−1 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 8−9
+167%
3−4
−167%
Far Cry New Dawn 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Forza Horizon 4 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Watch Dogs: Legion 0−1 0−1

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Hitman 3 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1−2 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 1−2 0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Forza Horizon 4 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Watch Dogs: Legion 0−1 0−1

This is how GTX 460M SLI and ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • GTX 460M SLI is 148% faster than ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2

1080p resolution:

  • GTX 460M SLI is 148% faster than ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2

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

  • in Far Cry New Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 460M SLI is 450% faster than the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTX 460M SLI is ahead in 47 tests (98%)
  • there's a draw in 1 test (2%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 4.93 2.19
Recency 3 September 2010 1 September 2008
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm

The GeForce GTX 460M SLI is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 in performance tests.


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

User ratings

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI
GeForce GTX 460M SLI
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2
Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2

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