Radeon X1950 PRO vs HD 8790M
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 700 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.34 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN (2011−2017) | R500 (2005−2007) |
| GPU code name | Mars XTX | RV570 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 16 November 2012 (11 years ago) | 1 October 2006 (17 years ago) |
| Current price | $460 | $147 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
Detailed specifications
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 cores | 384 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 575 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 950 million | 330 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 80 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | unknown | 66 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 21.60 | 6.900 |
| Floating-point performance | 691.2 gflops | no data |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on Radeon HD 8790M and Radeon X1950 PRO 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 size | medium sized | no data |
| Interface | MXM-A (3.0) | PCIe 1.0 x16 |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 1x 6-pin |
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 | 2 GB | 256 MB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 4500 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 64 GB/s | 44.16 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 | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 9.0c (9_3) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 3.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 2.0 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.
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 8790M outperforms X1950 PRO by 1065% in Passmark.
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 16 November 2012 | 1 October 2006 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 256 MB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 80 nm |
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8790M and Radeon X1950 PRO. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8790M is a notebook card while Radeon X1950 PRO is a desktop 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
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
