ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)

Place in the ranking	713	857
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	1.40
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	Surface Book	M88
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 October 2015 (9 years ago)	1 September 2008 (16 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	384	320
Core clock speed	954 MHz	660 MHz
Boost clock speed	993 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	no data	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	110 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	10.56
Floating-point processing power	no data	0.4224 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	16
TMUs	no data	16

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	no data	large
Interface	no data	PCIe 2.0 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	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	5012 MHz	850 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	54.4 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 data

No outputs

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Optimus

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	no data	4.1
OpenGL	no data	3.3
OpenCL	no data	N/A
Vulkan	-	N/A
CUDA	+	-

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:

Full HD

28
+75%

16−18

−75%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +37.5%	8−9 −37.5%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +110%	10−11 −110%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 +80%	5−6 −80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +40%	10−11 −40%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +37.5%	8−9 −37.5%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +110%	10−11 −110%
Metro Exodus	6−7	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 +80%	5−6 −80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +40%	10−11 −40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +15.4%	12−14 −15.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +37.5%	8−9 −37.5%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +100%	4−5 −100%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +110%	10−11 −110%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +15.4%	12−14 −15.4%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Battlefield 5	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Far Cry 5	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Battlefield 5	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry 5	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	0−1	0−1
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

+0%

3−4

+0%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) and ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 compete in popular games:

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 75% 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 Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 300% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is ahead in 24 tests (44%)
there's a draw in 30 tests (56%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.69	2.24
Recency	1 October 2015	1 September 2008
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	55 nm

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) has a 64.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 96.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 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.