Radeon R5 M420 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R5 M420, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book
2015
1 GB GDDR5
3.69
+191%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms R5 M420 by a whopping 191% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking7121037
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameSurface BookJet
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 October 2015 (9 years ago)15 May 2016 (8 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 cores384320
Core clock speed954 MHz780 MHz
Boost clock speed993 MHz850 MHz
Number of transistorsno data690 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Texture fill rateno data17.00
Floating-point processing powerno data0.544 TFLOPS
ROPsno data8
TMUsno data20

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).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x8

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 typeGDDR5DDR3
Maximum RAM amount1 GB4 GB
Memory bus width64 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed5012 MHz1000 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data16 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 Connectorsno dataNo 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.

DirectX12 (FL 11_0)12 (11_1)
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-1.2.131
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 HD24
+200%
8−9
−200%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3 0−1
Battlefield 5 8−9
+300%
2−3
−300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+233%
3−4
−233%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+950%
2−3
−950%
Hitman 3 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+85.7%
14−16
−85.7%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+75%
8−9
−75%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+27.3%
30−35
−27.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3 0−1
Battlefield 5 8−9
+300%
2−3
−300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+233%
3−4
−233%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+950%
2−3
−950%
Hitman 3 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+85.7%
14−16
−85.7%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+75%
8−9
−75%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+36.4%
10−12
−36.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+27.3%
30−35
−27.3%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+950%
2−3
−950%
Hitman 3 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+85.7%
14−16
−85.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+75%
8−9
−75%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+36.4%
10−12
−36.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+27.3%
30−35
−27.3%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+350%
2−3
−350%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
+500%
1−2
−500%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3 0−1
Hitman 3 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+125%
4−5
−125%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24
+283%
6−7
−283%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3 0−1
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3 0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

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

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book and R5 M420 compete in popular games:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 200% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 950% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, Maxwell GPU Surface Book surpassed R5 M420 in all 47 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.69 1.27
Recency 1 October 2015 15 May 2016
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB

Maxwell GPU Surface Book has a 190.6% higher aggregate performance score.

R5 M420, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 7 months, and a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount.

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R5 M420 in performance tests.


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

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NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book
Maxwell GPU Surface Book
AMD Radeon R5 M420
Radeon R5 M420

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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3.2 6 votes

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2.9 106 votes

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Questions & comments

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