ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs GeForce GTX 480M

Place in the ranking	685	869
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	2.88	no data
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	GF100	M98
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	25 May 2010 (14 years ago)	9 January 2009 (15 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	352	800
Core clock speed	425 MHz	550 MHz
Number of transistors	3,100 million	956 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	no data
Texture fill rate	18.70	22.00
Floating-point processing power	0.5984 TFLOPS	0.88 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	16
TMUs	44	40

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	large
Bus support	PCI-E 2.0	no data
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	None	no 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	888 MHz
Memory bandwidth	76.8 GB/s	56.83 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 Connectors	No outputs	No outputs
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 API	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	5.1	4.1
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
OpenCL	1.1	1.1
Vulkan	N/A	N/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.

GTX 480M 4.20
+97.2%

ATI Mobility HD 4870 2.13

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.

GTX 480M 8872
+33.8%

ATI Mobility HD 4870 6631

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:

900p	33 +106%	16−18 −106%
Full HD	40 +42.9%	28 −42.9%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

7−8
+40%

5−6

−40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 +71.4%	7−8 −71.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Battlefield 5	10−11 +400%	2−3 −400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +80%	5−6 −80%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Far Cry 5	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 +140%	5−6 −140%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 +178%	9−10 −178%
Hitman 3	10−11 +42.9%	7−8 −42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Metro Exodus	8−9 +100%	4−5 −100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 +60%	10−11 −60%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +19.4%	35−40 −19.4%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 +71.4%	7−8 −71.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Battlefield 5	10−11 +400%	2−3 −400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +80%	5−6 −80%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Far Cry 5	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 +140%	5−6 −140%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 +178%	9−10 −178%
Hitman 3	10−11 +42.9%	7−8 −42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Metro Exodus	8−9 +100%	4−5 −100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 +60%	10−11 −60%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +33.3%	12−14 −33.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +19.4%	35−40 −19.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 +71.4%	7−8 −71.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +80%	5−6 −80%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Far Cry 5	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 +178%	9−10 −178%
Hitman 3	10−11 +42.9%	7−8 −42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 +60%	10−11 −60%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +33.3%	12−14 −33.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +19.4%	35−40 −19.4%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−12
+175%

4−5

−175%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Forza Horizon 4	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Hitman 3	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	24−27 +117%	12−14 −117%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9
+60%

5−6

−60%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Hitman 3	0−1	0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2	0−1
Metro Exodus	1−2	0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6
+66.7%

3−4

−66.7%

This is how GTX 480M and ATI Mobility HD 4870 compete in popular games:

GTX 480M is 106% faster in 900p
GTX 480M is 43% faster in 1080p

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

in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 480M is 400% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, GTX 480M surpassed ATI Mobility HD 4870 in all 54 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	4.20	2.13
Recency	25 May 2010	9 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	40 nm	55 nm

GTX 480M has a 97.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 37.5% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce GTX 480M is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 4870 in performance tests.

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