RTX A500 vs Radeon HD 8790M

Place in the ranking	729	307
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	20.22
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Mars	GA107
Market segment	Laptop	Workstation
Release date	1 April 2013 (11 years ago)	10 November 2021 (3 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	2048
Core clock speed	850 MHz	1440 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	1770 MHz
Number of transistors	950 million	no data
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	unknown	60 Watt
Texture fill rate	21.60	113.3
Floating-point processing power	0.6912 TFLOPS	7.25 TFLOPS
ROPs	8	32
TMUs	24	64
Tensor Cores	no data	64
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	16

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)	PCIe 4.0 x8
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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	64 GB/s	112.0 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

No outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.7
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	-	8.6

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. 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 8790M 3.38

RTX A500 17.55
+419%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. 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.

HD 8790M 1305

RTX A500 6769
+419%

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:

Full HD

−400%

130−140
+400%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7
−400%

30−33

+400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −400%	50−55 +400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −400%	35−40 +400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −400%	30−33 +400%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −400%	35−40 +400%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −400%	45−50 +400%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −400%	95−100 +400%
Hitman 3	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −380%	24−27 +380%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −400%	65−70 +400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −400%	200−210 +400%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −400%	50−55 +400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −400%	35−40 +400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −400%	30−33 +400%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −400%	35−40 +400%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −400%	45−50 +400%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −400%	95−100 +400%
Hitman 3	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −380%	24−27 +380%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −400%	65−70 +400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −400%	75−80 +400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −400%	200−210 +400%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −400%	50−55 +400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −400%	30−33 +400%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −400%	35−40 +400%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −400%	95−100 +400%
Hitman 3	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −400%	65−70 +400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −400%	75−80 +400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −400%	200−210 +400%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9
−400%

40−45

+400%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 −400%	30−33 +400%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −380%	24−27 +380%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −367%	14−16 +367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −350%	18−20 +350%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Hitman 3	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −376%	100−105 +376%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8
−400%

35−40

+400%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −400%	5−6 +400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −400%	5−6 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	2−3 −400%	10−11 +400%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −400%	5−6 +400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −400%	5−6 +400%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5
−350%

18−20

+350%

This is how HD 8790M and RTX A500 compete in popular games:

RTX A500 is 400% faster in 1080p

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.38	17.55
Recency	1 April 2013	10 November 2021
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	4 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm

RTX A500 has a 419.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.

The RTX A500 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 8790M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 8790M is a notebook card while RTX A500 is a workstation one.

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