Radeon 660M vs 540X

Place in the ranking	708	331
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	5.11	27.94
Architecture	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Lexa	Rembrandt+
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	5 September 2018 (6 years ago)	3 January 2023 (1 year 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 cores	512	384
Core clock speed	980 MHz	1500 MHz
Boost clock speed	1046 MHz	1900 MHz
Number of transistors	2,200 million	13,100 million
Manufacturing process technology	14 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	40 Watt
Texture fill rate	33.47	45.60
Floating-point processing power	1.071 TFLOPS	1.459 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	16
TMUs	32	24
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	6

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).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 4.0 x8
Supplementary power connectors	None	None

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	System Shared
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	System Shared
Memory bus width	64 Bit	System Shared
Memory clock speed	1500 MHz	System Shared
Memory bandwidth	48 GB/s	no data
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 outputs

Portable Device Dependent

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.4	6.7
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3

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.

Radeon 540X 3.73

Radeon 660M 16.31
+337%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Radeon 540X 1437

Radeon 660M 6285
+337%

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.

Radeon 540X 4097

Radeon 660M 6743
+64.6%

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.

Radeon 540X 11545

Radeon 660M 23222
+101%

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.

Radeon 540X 2779

Radeon 660M 4848
+74.5%

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.

Radeon 540X 15167

Radeon 660M 31515
+108%

3DMark Time Spy Graphics

Radeon 540X 797

Radeon 660M 1544
+93.7%

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

−31.6%

25
+31.6%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

−167%

24
+167%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16 −43.8%	21−24 +43.8%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12 −117%	26 +117%
Battlefield 5	8−9 −275%	30−33 +275%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −150%	20−22 +150%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −186%	20 +186%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −229%	21−24 +229%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −170%	27−30 +170%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −195%	65−70 +195%
Hitman 3	11 −90.9%	21 +90.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −108%	50−55 +108%
Metro Exodus	23 −34.8%	30−35 +34.8%
Red Dead Redemption 2	19 −42.1%	27−30 +42.1%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −129%	30−35 +129%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −47.6%	60−65 +47.6%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −109%	21−24 +109%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 −533%	19 +533%
Battlefield 5	8−9 −275%	30−33 +275%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −150%	20−22 +150%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −100%	14 +100%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −229%	21−24 +229%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −170%	27−30 +170%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −195%	65−70 +195%
Hitman 3	9−10 −133%	21 +133%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −108%	50−55 +108%
Metro Exodus	17 −82.4%	30−35 +82.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14 −92.9%	27−30 +92.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20 −65%	33 +65%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −73.3%	24−27 +73.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −47.6%	60−65 +47.6%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −109%	21−24 +109%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 −367%	14−16 +367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −150%	20−22 +150%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −114%	14−16 +114%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −229%	21−24 +229%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −195%	65−70 +195%
Hitman 3	9−10 −111%	18−20 +111%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 +18.2%	22 −18.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	17 −58.8%	27 +58.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10 −50%	15 +50%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −47.6%	60−65 +47.6%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

−125%

27−30
+125%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	7−8 −171%	18−20 +171%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −150%	14−16 +150%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −233%	10−11 +233%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −233%	10−11 +233%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −150%	5−6 +150%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −175%	10−12 +175%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 −1333%	40−45 +1333%
Hitman 3	8−9 −62.5%	12−14 +62.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 −122%	20−22 +122%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 −200%	9−10 +200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −170%	60−65 +170%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−129%

16−18
+129%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −350%	9−10 +350%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −250%	7−8 +250%
Metro Exodus	0−1	8−9

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −100%	6−7 +100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −100%	4−5 +100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −300%	4−5 +300%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	1−2
Far Cry 5	2−3 −150%	5−6 +150%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −500%	12−14 +500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−80%

9−10
+80%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

6−7

+0%

6−7

+0%

This is how Radeon 540X and Radeon 660M compete in popular games:

Radeon 660M is 32% faster in 1080p

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

in Horizon Zero Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the Radeon 540X is 18% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the Radeon 660M is 1333% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Radeon 540X is ahead in 1 test (1%)
Radeon 660M is ahead in 62 tests (89%)
there's a draw in 7 tests (10%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.73	16.31
Recency	5 September 2018	3 January 2023
Chip lithography	14 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	40 Watt

Radeon 660M has a 337.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 133.3% more advanced lithography process, and 25% lower power consumption.

The Radeon 660M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 540X in performance tests.

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