ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 vs AMD R9 M280X

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Combined performance score

R9 M280X
2.10

Mobility HD 3870 X2 outperforms R9 M280X by 4% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking824814
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)RV6xx (2007−2010)
GPU code nameSaturn XTM88-XT CF
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 February 2015 (9 years old)1 September 2008 (15 years old)

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 cores896640
Core clock speed900 MHz660 MHz
Number of transistors2,080 million666 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data110 Watt
Texture fill rate61.6010.56
Floating-point performance1,792 gflops2x 422.4 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 M280X and Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. 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 sizelargelarge
Bus supportNot Listedno data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16

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 typeNot ListedGDDR3
Maximum RAM amount0 MB512 MB
Memory bus widthNot Listed256 Bit
Memory clock speedno data850 MHz
Memory bandwidth96 GB/s54.4 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 outputsNo outputs

Technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration-no data
Enduro-no data
FreeSync1no data
HD3D+no data
PowerTune+no data
DualGraphics1no data
TrueAudio-no data
ZeroCore+no data
Switchable graphics1no data

API support

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

DirectXDirectX® 1110.1 (10_1)
Shader Model6.34.1
OpenGL4.43.3
OpenCLNot ListedN/A
Vulkanno dataN/A
Mantle+no data

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.

R9 M280X 2.10
ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 2.19
+4.3%

Mobility HD 3870 X2 outperforms R9 M280X by 4% in our combined benchmark results.


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%

R9 M280X 9222
+33.8%
ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 6895

R9 M280X outperforms Mobility HD 3870 X2 by 34% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 HD27
+0%
27−30
+0%
4K18
+0%
18−20
+0%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Far Cry 5 12
+500%
2−3
−500%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Hitman 3 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Far Cry 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Hitman 3 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Metro Exodus 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16
+167%
6−7
−167%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Far Cry 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9
+50%
6−7
−50%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Hitman 3 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Metro Exodus 0−1 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Hitman 3 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%

This is how R9 M280X and ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 compete in popular games:

1080p resolution:

  • ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 0% faster than R9 M280X

4K resolution:

  • ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 0% faster than R9 M280X

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

  • in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the R9 M280X is 500% faster than the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2.
  • in Far Cry New Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 100% faster than the R9 M280X.

All in all, in popular games:

  • R9 M280X is ahead in 3 tests (6%)
  • ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is ahead in 6 tests (13%)
  • there's a draw in 39 tests (81%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 2.10 2.19
Recency 1 February 2015 1 September 2008
Chip lithography 28 nm 55 nm

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 M280X and Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2. The differences in performance seem too small.


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 R9 M280X
Radeon R9 M280X
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2
Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2

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User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


2.7 3 votes

Rate AMD Radeon R9 M280X on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3 2 votes

Rate ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.