FirePro M3900 vs ATI Radeon HD 4870
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 720 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.31 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 1.65 | no data |
| Architecture | TeraScale (2005−2013) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | RV770 | Seymour |
| Market segment | Desktop | Mobile workstation |
| Release date | 25 June 2008 (16 years ago) | 19 October 2010 (14 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $299 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 800 | 160 |
| Core clock speed | 750 MHz | 750 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 750 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 956 million | 370 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 55 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 150 Watt | 20 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 30.00 | 6.000 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.2 TFLOPS | 0.24 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 4 |
| TMUs | 40 | 8 |
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).
| Bus support | no data | n/a |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | 250 mm | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Form factor | no data | chip-down |
| 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 | GDDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 64 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 900 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 115.2 GB/s | 14 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 Connectors | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video | No outputs |
| Eyefinity | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 10.1 (10_1) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 25 June 2008 | 19 October 2010 |
| Chip lithography | 55 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 150 Watt | 20 Watt |
FirePro M3900 has an age advantage of 2 years, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 650% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 4870 and FirePro M3900. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 4870 is a desktop card while FirePro M3900 is a mobile workstation one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
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