ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs HD 6990M

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6990M and Mobility Radeon HD 4870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6990M
2011
2 GB GDDR5, 100 Watt
5.06
+146%

HD 6990M outperforms ATI Mobility HD 4870 by a whopping 146% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking626877
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency3.63no data
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameBlackcombM98
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date12 July 2011 (13 years ago)9 January 2009 (16 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 cores1120800
Core clock speed715 MHz550 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million956 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)100 Wattno data
Texture fill rate40.0422.00
Floating-point processing power1.602 TFLOPS0.88 TFLOPS
ROPs3216
TMUs5640

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 sizelargelarge
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno 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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount2 GB512 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed900 MHz888 MHz
Memory bandwidth115.2 GB/s56.83 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 and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model5.04.1
OpenGL4.43.3
OpenCL1.21.1
VulkanN/AN/A

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.

HD 6990M 5.06
+146%
ATI Mobility HD 4870 2.06

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.

HD 6990M 15113
+128%
ATI Mobility HD 4870 6631

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:

900p54
+157%
21−24
−157%
Full HD59
+127%
26
−127%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
Counter-Strike 2 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+110%
10−11
−110%
Forza Horizon 5 10−11 0−1
Metro Exodus 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
Valorant 16−18
+167%
6−7
−167%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
Counter-Strike 2 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Dota 2 16−18
+325%
4−5
−325%
Far Cry 5 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Fortnite 30−35
+182%
10−12
−182%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+110%
10−11
−110%
Forza Horizon 5 10−11 0−1
Grand Theft Auto V 16−18
+325%
4−5
−325%
Metro Exodus 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 40−45
+110%
21−24
−110%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+88.9%
9−10
−88.9%
Valorant 16−18
+167%
6−7
−167%
World of Tanks 85−90
+110%
40−45
−110%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 16−18
+300%
4−5
−300%
Counter-Strike 2 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Dota 2 16−18
+325%
4−5
−325%
Far Cry 5 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+110%
10−11
−110%
Forza Horizon 5 10−11 0−1
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 40−45
+110%
21−24
−110%
Valorant 16−18
+167%
6−7
−167%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2 5−6 0−1
Grand Theft Auto V 5−6 0−1
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 30−35
+136%
14−16
−136%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
World of Tanks 35−40
+171%
14−16
−171%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%
Far Cry 5 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
+200%
3−4
−200%
Forza Horizon 5 7−8
+250%
2−3
−250%
Metro Exodus 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Valorant 14−16
+75%
8−9
−75%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2 16−18
+6.3%
16−18
−6.3%
Grand Theft Auto V 16−18
+6.7%
14−16
−6.7%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 14−16
+150%
6−7
−150%
Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+13.3%
14−16
−13.3%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Dota 2 16−18
+6.3%
16−18
−6.3%
Far Cry 5 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Fortnite 4−5 0−1
Forza Horizon 4 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Forza Horizon 5 3−4 0−1
Valorant 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%

This is how HD 6990M and ATI Mobility HD 4870 compete in popular games:

  • HD 6990M is 157% faster in 900p
  • HD 6990M is 127% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Battlefield 5, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6990M is 700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 6990M is ahead in 46 tests (98%)
  • there's a draw in 1 test (2%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 5.06 2.06
Recency 12 July 2011 9 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm

HD 6990M has a 145.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 37.5% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon HD 6990M is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 4870 in performance tests.

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AMD Radeon HD 6990M
Radeon HD 6990M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Mobility Radeon HD 4870

Other comparisons

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.


3.6 14 votes

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3.7 9 votes

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