Radeon R5 M420 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book
Aggregate performance score
Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R5 M420 by a whopping 193% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 673 | 1000 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Maxwell (2014−2018) | GCN (2011−2017) |
| GPU code name | Surface Book | Jet |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Release date | 1 October 2015 (8 years ago) | 1 June 2016 (8 years ago) |
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 | 384 | 320 |
| Core clock speed | 954 MHz | 780 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 993 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Number of transistors | no data | 690 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Texture fill rate | no data | 17.00 |
| Floating-point performance | no data | 547.2 gflops |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R5 M420 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.
| Interface | no data | PCIe 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 type | GDDR5 | DDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory bus width | 64 Bit | 64 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 5012 MHz | 2000 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | no data | 16 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 | + | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (FL 11_0) | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | no data | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | no data | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | no data | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | no data | 1.2.131 |
| CUDA | + | no data |
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 | 22
+214%
| 7−8
−214%
|
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 | 7−8
+250%
|
2−3
−250%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 1−2 | 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 | 16−18
+433%
|
3−4
−433%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
+133%
|
3−4
−133%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 21−24
+50%
|
14−16
−50%
|
| Metro Exodus | 3−4
+200%
|
1−2
−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 | 18−20
+63.6%
|
10−12
−63.6%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 7−8
+250%
|
2−3
−250%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 1−2 | 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 | 16−18
+433%
|
3−4
−433%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
+133%
|
3−4
−133%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 21−24
+50%
|
14−16
−50%
|
| Metro Exodus | 3−4
+200%
|
1−2
−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 | 9−10
+125%
|
4−5
−125%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 18−20
+63.6%
|
10−12
−63.6%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 7−8
+250%
|
2−3
−250%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 1−2 | 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 | 16−18
+433%
|
3−4
−433%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 21−24
+50%
|
14−16
−50%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 14−16
+75%
|
8−9
−75%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 9−10
+125%
|
4−5
−125%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 18−20
+63.6%
|
10−12
−63.6%
|
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 9−10
+350%
|
2−3
−350%
|
1440p
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 7−8
+600%
|
1−2
−600%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 5−6
+400%
|
1−2
−400%
|
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 3−4
+200%
|
1−2
−200%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 6−7
+50%
|
4−5
−50%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2−3
+100%
|
1−2
−100%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 6−7
+200%
|
2−3
−200%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 6−7
+500%
|
1−2
−500%
|
| 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 | 1−2 | 0−1 |
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 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 4−5
+300%
|
1−2
−300%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 0−1 | 0−1 |
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 3−4
+50%
|
2−3
−50%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 1−2 | 0−1 |
| 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 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 4−5
+300%
|
1−2
−300%
|
| Metro Exodus | 5−6
+25%
|
4−5
−25%
|
| 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 214% faster in 1080p
Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:
- in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 600% faster.
All in all, in popular games:
- Without exception, Maxwell GPU Surface Book surpassed R5 M420 in all 49 of our tests.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 3.69 | 1.26 |
| Recency | 1 October 2015 | 1 June 2016 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 4 GB |
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.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
