Radeon HD 8950M vs GeForce GTX 480M SLI
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 625 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 4.54 | no data |
| Architecture | Fermi (2010−2014) | GCN 2.0 (2013−2017) |
| GPU code name | N11E-GTX-A3 | Saturn |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Release date | 25 May 2010 (15 years ago) | 14 May 2013 (12 years ago) |
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 cores | 704 | 768 |
| Core clock speed | 425 MHz | 1075 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 6000 Million | 2,080 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 100 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | no data | 51.60 |
| Floating-point processing power | no data | 1.651 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | no data | 16 |
| TMUs | no data | 48 |
| L1 Cache | no data | 192 KB |
| L2 Cache | no data | 256 KB |
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 size | large | no data |
| Interface | no data | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
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 type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1200 MHz | 1375 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | no data | 88 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | no data | No outputs |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11 | 12 (12_0) |
| Shader Model | no data | 6.3 |
| OpenGL | no data | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | no data | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | - | 1.2.131 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 25 May 2010 | 14 May 2013 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 28 nm |
GTX 480M SLI has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.
HD 8950M, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 480M SLI and Radeon HD 8950M. We've got no test results to judge.
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