Radeon 520 vs ATI Mobility HD 4870

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon 520, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

ATI Mobility HD 4870
2009
512 MB GDDR3
2.12
+3.9%

ATI Mobility HD 4870 outperforms 520 by a minimal 4% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking866878
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiencyno data2.84
ArchitectureTeraScale (2005−2013)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameM98Banks
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date9 January 2009 (15 years ago)18 April 2017 (7 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 cores800320
Core clock speed550 MHz1030 MHz
Number of transistors956 million690 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data50 Watt
Texture fill rate22.0020.60
Floating-point processing power0.88 TFLOPS0.6592 TFLOPS
ROPs168
TMUs4020

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 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone

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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount512 MB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed888 MHz1125 MHz
Memory bandwidth56.83 GB/s36 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 outputsNo outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX10.1 (10_1)12 (11_1)
Shader Model4.15.1
OpenGL3.34.6
OpenCL1.11.2
VulkanN/A1.2.131

Synthetic benchmark performance

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


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

ATI Mobility HD 4870 2.12
+3.9%
Radeon 520 2.04

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

ATI Mobility HD 4870 6631
+25.9%
Radeon 520 5266

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 HD28
+115%
13
−115%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Battlefield 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%
Far Cry 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Battlefield 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%
Far Cry 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
−50%
18
+50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%
Far Cry 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+100%
6
−100%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 12−14
+9.1%
10−12
−9.1%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

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

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

This is how ATI Mobility HD 4870 and Radeon 520 compete in popular games:

  • ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 115% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 100% faster.
  • in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the Radeon 520 is 50% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • ATI Mobility HD 4870 is ahead in 11 tests (20%)
  • Radeon 520 is ahead in 1 test (2%)
  • there's a draw in 42 tests (78%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 2.12 2.04
Recency 9 January 2009 18 April 2017
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 2 GB
Chip lithography 55 nm 28 nm

ATI Mobility HD 4870 has a 3.9% higher aggregate performance score.

Radeon 520, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 96.4% more advanced lithography process.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon 520.


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

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ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Mobility Radeon HD 4870
AMD Radeon 520
Radeon 520

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.


3.7 9 votes

Rate Mobility Radeon HD 4870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3 334 votes

Rate Radeon 520 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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