GeForce GT 420M vs ATI Radeon HD 4860
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 1175 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 3.11 |
| Architecture | TeraScale (2005−2013) | Fermi (2010−2014) |
| GPU code name | RV790 | GF108 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 9 September 2009 (16 years ago) | 3 September 2010 (15 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 cores | 640 | 96 |
| Core clock speed | 700 MHz | 500 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 959 million | 585 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 55 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 130 Watt | 23 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 22.40 | 8.000 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.896 TFLOPS | 0.192 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 4 |
| TMUs | 32 | 16 |
| L1 Cache | 128 KB | 128 KB |
| L2 Cache | 256 KB | 256 KB |
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 size | no data | medium sized |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin | no data |
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 | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 750 MHz | 800 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 96 GB/s | 25.6 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video | No outputs |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 10.1 (10_1) | 12 API |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 4.5 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 9 September 2009 | 3 September 2010 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Chip lithography | 55 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 130 Watt | 23 Watt |
GT 420M has an age advantage of 11 months, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 465.2% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 4860 and GeForce GT 420M. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 4860 is a desktop graphics card while GeForce GT 420M is a notebook one.
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