NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 vs AMD Radeon HD 8730M

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Combined performance score

HD 8730M
1.96

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1439% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking851170
Place by popularitynot in top-10048
Value for money0.1325.03
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)Turing (2018−2021)
GPU code nameMarsTuring TU116
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date16 November 2012 (11 years old)14 March 2019 (5 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$219
Current price$338 $252 (1.2x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 1660 has 19154% better value for money than HD 8730M.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores3841408
Core clock speed650 MHz1530 MHz
Boost clock speed700 MHz1785 MHz
Number of transistors950 million6,600 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data120 Watt
Texture fill rate16.80157.1
Floating-point performance537.6 gflopsno data

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 8730M and GeForce GTX 1660 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop sizemedium sizedno data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8PCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data229 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 8-pin

Memory

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 typeDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB6 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed2000 MHz8000 MHz
Memory bandwidth32 GB/s192.1 GB/s
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

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 outputs1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMIno data+

API support

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

DirectX12 (11_1)12 (12_1)
Shader Model5.16.5
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.2.1311.2.131
CUDAno data7.5

Synthetic benchmark performance

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


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

HD 8730M 1.96
GTX 1660 30.16
+1439%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1439% in our combined benchmark results.


Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

HD 8730M 761
GTX 1660 11692
+1436%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1436% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 8730M 6311
GTX 1660 71229
+1029%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1029% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 8730M 1371
GTX 1660 21131
+1442%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1442% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 8730M 1150
GTX 1660 14055
+1122%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 1122% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 8730M 8054
GTX 1660 80889
+904%

GeForce GTX 1660 outperforms Radeon HD 8730M by 904% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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:

900p22
−1264%
300−350
+1264%
Full HD19
−353%
86
+353%
1440p3−4
−1500%
48
+1500%
4K1−2
−2700%
28
+2700%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−1675%
71
+1675%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−2750%
55−60
+2750%
Battlefield 5 2−3
−4600%
90−95
+4600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
−918%
112
+918%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−1350%
58
+1350%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−9900%
100
+9900%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−9400%
95
+9400%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−3200%
132
+3200%
Hitman 3 3−4
−3567%
110
+3567%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
−2633%
82
+2633%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
−1360%
73
+1360%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−1063%
93
+1063%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−2750%
55−60
+2750%
Battlefield 5 2−3
−4600%
90−95
+4600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
−673%
85
+673%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−1075%
47
+1075%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−9100%
92
+9100%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−8800%
89
+8800%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−2975%
123
+2975%
Hitman 3 3−4
−2900%
90
+2900%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
−1933%
61
+1933%
Metro Exodus 3−4
−1800%
57
+1800%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
−700%
40
+700%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
−875%
78
+875%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 5−6
−1940%
102
+1940%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−2750%
55−60
+2750%
Battlefield 5 2−3
−4600%
90−95
+4600%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−900%
40
+900%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−8500%
86
+8500%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−8100%
82
+8100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−2350%
98
+2350%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 5−6
−1040%
57
+1040%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−1325%
57
+1325%
Hitman 3 5−6
−1040%
57
+1040%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
−344%
40
+344%
Metro Exodus 0−1 33
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−2400%
25
+2400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 5−6
−860%
48
+860%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−2300%
24
+2300%
Far Cry 5 3−4
−1867%
59
+1867%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
−1850%
35−40
+1850%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2−3
−1500%
32
+1500%
Hitman 3 2−3
−1450%
31
+1450%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
−37.5%
11
+37.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−1500%
16−18
+1500%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−1900%
20−22
+1900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2
−1400%
15
+1400%
Far Cry 5 3−4
−900%
30
+900%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
−520%
31
+520%

This is how HD 8730M and GTX 1660 compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • GTX 1660 is 1264% faster than HD 8730M

1080p resolution:

  • GTX 1660 is 353% faster than HD 8730M

1440p resolution:

  • GTX 1660 is 1500% faster than HD 8730M

4K resolution:

  • GTX 1660 is 2700% faster than HD 8730M

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

  • in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 1660 is 9900% faster than the HD 8730M.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, GTX 1660 surpassed HD 8730M in all 48 of our tests.

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 1.96 30.16
Recency 16 November 2012 14 March 2019
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 12 nm

The GeForce GTX 1660 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 8730M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 8730M is a notebook card while GeForce GTX 1660 is a desktop one.


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

User ratings

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon HD 8730M
Radeon HD 8730M
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
GeForce GTX 1660

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Questions and comments

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