Radeon R7 M270 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book

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Aggregate performance score

Maxwell GPU Surface Book
2015
1 GB GDDR5
3.68
+85.9%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R7 M270 by an impressive 86% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking673853
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2018)GCN (2011−2017)
GPU code nameSurface BookOpal XT / Mars
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 October 2015 (8 years ago)7 January 2014 (10 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 cores384384
Core clock speed954 MHz825 MHz
Boost clock speed993 MHzno data
Number of transistorsno data950 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Texture fill rateno data19.80
Floating-point performanceno data633.6 gflops

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R7 M270 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.

Laptop sizeno datamedium sized
Bus supportno dataPCIe 3.0
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 typeGDDR5Not Listed
Maximum RAM amount1 GB0 MB
Memory bus width64 BitNot Listed
Memory clock speed5012 MHzno data
Memory bandwidthno data28.8 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.

AppAccelerationno data-
Endurono data-
FreeSyncno data1
HD3Dno data+
PowerTuneno data+
DualGraphicsno data1
TrueAudiono data-
ZeroCoreno data+
Switchable graphicsno data1
Optimus+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (FL 11_0)DirectX® 11
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.4
OpenCLno dataNot Listed
Mantleno data+
CUDA+no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 3.68
+85.9%
R7 M270 1.98

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R7 M270 by 86% based on our aggregate benchmark results.


3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 2577
+38.7%
R7 M270 1858

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R7 M270 by 39% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 2076
+65%
R7 M270 1258

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R7 M270 by 65% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 11380
+78.8%
R7 M270 6365

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms Radeon R7 M270 by 79% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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 HD14
+0%
14
+0%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2 0−1
Battlefield 5 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+62.5%
8−9
−62.5%
Far Cry New Dawn 8−9
+300%
2−3
−300%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Hitman 3 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+28.6%
14−16
−28.6%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+125%
4−5
−125%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+27.3%
10−12
−27.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2 0−1
Battlefield 5 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+62.5%
8−9
−62.5%
Far Cry New Dawn 8−9
+300%
2−3
−300%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Hitman 3 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+28.6%
14−16
−28.6%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+125%
4−5
−125%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+27.3%
10−12
−27.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+62.5%
8−9
−62.5%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+28.6%
14−16
−28.6%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+125%
4−5
−125%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Hitman 3 1−2 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+20%
5−6
−20%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2 0−1

4K
High Preset

Far Cry 5 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 0−1 0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1−2 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Forza Horizon 4 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Horizon Zero Dawn 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
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 R7 M270 compete in popular games:

  • A tie 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 is 700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, Maxwell GPU Surface Book surpassed R7 M270 in all 50 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.68 1.98
Recency 1 October 2015 7 January 2014

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R7 M270 in performance tests.


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

Vote for your favorite

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NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book
Maxwell GPU Surface Book
AMD Radeon R7 M270
Radeon R7 M270

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

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.4 5 votes

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3.7 17 votes

Rate Radeon R7 M270 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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