ATI Radeon HD 3870 vs ATI Mobility HD 3850 X2

Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot rated993
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data0.06
Power efficiencyno data0.95
ArchitectureTeraScale (2005−2013)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameM88RV670
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date4 June 2008 (16 years ago)19 November 2007 (17 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$269

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores320320
Core clock speed580 MHz777 MHz
Number of transistors666 million666 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)70 Watt106 Watt
Texture fill rate9.28012.43
Floating-point processing power0.3712 TFLOPS0.4973 TFLOPS
ROPs1616
TMUs1616

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 sizelargeno data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Lengthno data241 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 6-pin

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 typeGDDR3GDDR4
Maximum RAM amount512 MB512 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed750 MHz1126 MHz
Memory bandwidth48 GB/s72.06 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 outputs2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API compatibility

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

DirectX10.1 (10_1)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.14.1
OpenGL3.33.3
OpenCLN/AN/A
VulkanN/AN/A

Pros & cons summary


Recency 4 June 2008 19 November 2007
Power consumption (TDP) 70 Watt 106 Watt

ATI Mobility HD 3850 X2 has an age advantage of 6 months, and 51.4% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2 and Radeon HD 3870. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2 is a notebook card while Radeon HD 3870 is a desktop one.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2
Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2
ATI Radeon HD 3870
Radeon HD 3870

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.


5 1 vote

Rate Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.6 161 vote

Rate Radeon HD 3870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.