GeForce4 MX 420 PCI vs Radeon HD 8790M
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 731 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | Celsius (1999−2005) |
| GPU code name | Mars | NV17 A3 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 1 April 2013 (11 years ago) | 6 February 2002 (22 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 | 384 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 250 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 950 million | 29 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 150 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | unknown | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 21.60 | 1.000 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.6912 TFLOPS | no data |
| ROPs | 8 | 2 |
| TMUs | 24 | 4 |
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 | medium sized | no data |
| Interface | MXM-A (3.0) | PCI |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| 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 | SDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 64 MB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 64 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1000 MHz | 166 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 64 GB/s | 1.328 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | no data |
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 | 1x VGA, 1x S-Video |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 8.0 |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | no data |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 1.3 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 1 April 2013 | 6 February 2002 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 64 MB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 150 nm |
HD 8790M has an age advantage of 11 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 435.7% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8790M and GeForce4 MX 420 PCI. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8790M is a notebook card while GeForce4 MX 420 PCI is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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