NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 870M sales 12 March 2014. This is a laptop graphics card based on a Kepler architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamers. 6 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 2.5 GHz are supplied, and together with 192 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 120.0 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is card attached via MXM-B (3.0) interface. Power consumption is at 100 Watt.

It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 8.90% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 870M: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking450
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Value for money2.87
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)
GPU code nameN15P-GT
Market segmentLaptop
Release date12 March 2014 (10 years old)
Current price$403 of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce GTX 870M's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 870M's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores1344of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
CUDA cores1344
Core clock speed941 MHzof 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed967 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors3,540 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology28 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)100 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate108.3of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance2,599 gflopsof 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 870M's 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 sizelarge
Bus supportPCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectorsNone
SLI options+

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 870M: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount6 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Standard memory configurationGDDR5
Memory bus width192 Bitof 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB)
Memory clock speedUp to 2500 MHzof 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth120.0 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 870M. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display ConnectorsNo outputs
eDP 1.2 signal supportUp to 3840x2160
LVDS signal supportUp to 1920x1200
VGA аnalog display supportUp to 2048x1536
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportUp to 3840x2160
HDMI+
HDCP content protection+
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI+
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming+

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 870M. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+
Optimus+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 870M, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 (11_0)
Shader Model5.1
OpenGL4.5of 4.6 (GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile)
OpenCL1.1
Vulkan1.1.126
CUDA+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 870M. 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.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 870M 3449

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 870M 24035

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 870M 7156

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 870M 4694

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 870M 31322

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

GTX 870M 12443

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 5%

GTX 870M 11207

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses CUDA API by NVIDIA.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 870M 9499

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 870M 65

Octane Render OctaneBench

This is a special benchmark measuring graphics card performance in OctaneRender, which is a realistic GPU rendering engine by OTOY Inc., available either as a standalone program, or as a plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and many other apps. It renders four different static scenes, then compares render times with a reference GPU which is currently GeForce GTX 980. This benchmark has nothing to do with gaming and is aimed at professional 3D graphics artists.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 870M 34

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

GTX 870M 582

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 870M is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD46
4K19

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 14−16

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
Battlefield 5 30−33
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
Far Cry 5 21−24
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
Hitman 3 21−24
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
Battlefield 5 30−33
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
Far Cry 5 21−24
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
Hitman 3 21−24
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
Metro Exodus 12−14
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
Battlefield 5 30−33
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
Far Cry 5 21−24
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 15
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
Hitman 3 14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
Metro Exodus 7−8
Red Dead Redemption 2 6−7
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
Battlefield 5 12−14
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
Far Cry 5 14−16
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
Forza Horizon 4 14−16
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9−10
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
Hitman 3 8−9
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
Metro Exodus 3−4
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4−5
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
Battlefield 5 6−7
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
Far Cry 5 7−8
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3

Relative perfomance

Overall GeForce GTX 870M performance compared to nearest competitors among notebook video cards.


AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 870M is Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire, which is faster by 1% and higher by 6 positions in our ranking.

HD 6970M CrossfireRadeon HD6970M Crossfire
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Here are some closest AMD rivals to GeForce GTX 870M:

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

GTX 960MGeForce GTX960M
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GT 755M SLIGeForce GT755M SLI
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GTX 775MGeForce GTX775M
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R9 M390XRadeon R9M390X
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R9 M470XRadeon R9M470X
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with GeForce GTX 870M according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


3.9 99 votes

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Questions and comments

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