ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book

Place in the ranking	713	870
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	Surface Book	M98
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 October 2015 (9 years ago)	9 January 2009 (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	800
Core clock speed	954 MHz	550 MHz
Boost clock speed	993 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	no data	956 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Texture fill rate	no data	22.00
Floating-point processing power	no data	0.88 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	16
TMUs	no data	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	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	888 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	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 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	12 (FL 11_0)	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	no data	4.1
OpenGL	no data	3.3
OpenCL	no data	1.1
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

−8.3%

26
+8.3%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Elden Ring	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 +45.5%	10−12 −45.5%
Metro Exodus	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	12−14 +33.3%	9−10 −33.3%
Valorant	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Dota 2	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Elden Ring	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%
Far Cry 5	20−22 +42.9%	14−16 −42.9%
Fortnite	21−24 +90.9%	10−12 −90.9%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 +45.5%	10−12 −45.5%
Grand Theft Auto V	10−12 +120%	5−6 −120%
Metro Exodus	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	30−35 +57.1%	21−24 −57.1%
Red Dead Redemption 2	12−14 +33.3%	9−10 −33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +44.4%	9−10 −44.4%
Valorant	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
World of Tanks	60−65 +56.1%	40−45 −56.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Dota 2	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Far Cry 5	20−22 +42.9%	14−16 −42.9%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 +45.5%	10−12 −45.5%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	30−35 +57.1%	21−24 −57.1%
Valorant	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Elden Ring	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Grand Theft Auto V	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	24−27 +85.7%	14−16 −85.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
World of Tanks	24−27 +85.7%	14−16 −85.7%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Counter-Strike 2	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
Valorant	10−12 +37.5%	8−9 −37.5%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Elden Ring	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Grand Theft Auto V	16−18 +6.7%	14−16 −6.7%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +6.7%	14−16 −6.7%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Dota 2	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Far Cry 5	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Fortnite	2−3	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	1−2	0−1
Valorant	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book and ATI Mobility HD 4870 compete in popular games:

ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 8% faster in 1080p

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

in Metro Exodus, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 300% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Maxwell GPU Surface Book is ahead in 46 tests (90%)
there's a draw in 5 tests (10%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.70	2.14
Recency	1 October 2015	9 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	55 nm

Maxwell GPU Surface Book has a 72.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 96.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book 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.