Radeon Sky 500 vs ION 2
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | not rated | 373 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 4.60 |
| Architecture | GT2xx (2009−2012) | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) |
| GPU code name | GT218-ION-A3, GT218-ILV-A3 | Pitcairn |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 10 January 2010 (14 years ago) | 27 March 2013 (11 years ago) |
| Current price | $622 | $129 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
Detailed specifications
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 cores | 16 | 1280 |
| Core clock speed | 405 / 475 / 535 MHz | 950 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 260 million | 2,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 6/12 Watt | 150 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 4.000 | 76.00 |
| Floating-point performance | no data | 2,432 gflops |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on ION 2 and Radeon Sky 500 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). 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.
| Bus support | no data | PCIe 3.0 |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 242 mm |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| Form factor | no data | full height / full length |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 1x 6-pin |
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 | DDR2, DDR3 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 4 GB |
| Memory bus width | 64 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 790 MHz | 4800 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | no data | 154 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | no data |
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 | 1x DisplayPort |
| DisplayPort count | no data | 1 |
| Dual-link DVI support | no data | 1 |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_1) | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | 1.2.131 |
| CUDA | 1.2 | no data |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 10 January 2010 | 27 March 2013 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 4 GB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 6 Watt | 150 Watt |
We couldn't decide between ION 2 and Radeon Sky 500. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that ION 2 is a notebook card while Radeon Sky 500 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
