AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) vs NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)

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Combined performance score

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
3.64

Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by 23% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking673617
Place by popularitynot in top-10036
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2018)Vega (2017−2021)
GPU code nameSurface BookVega Raven Ridge
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 October 2015 (8 years old)26 October 2017 (6 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 cores384512
Core clock speed954 MHzno data
Boost clock speed993 MHz1200 MHz
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data15 Watt

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 typeGDDR5no data
Maximum RAM amount1 GBno data
Memory bus width64 Bitno data
Memory clock speed5012 MHzno data
Shared memory--

Technologies

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

Optimus+no data

API support

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

DirectXDirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.012_1
CUDA+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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 3.64
RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) 4.48
+23.1%

Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by 23% in our combined benchmark results.


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%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 2577
RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) 3557
+38%

Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by 38% 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%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 2076
RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) 2381
+14.7%

Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by 15% 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%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 11380
RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) 15770
+38.6%

Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by 39% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 123411
+9%
RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) 113247

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) outperforms Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) by 9% in 3DMark Ice Storm 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:

Full HD28
+55.6%
18
−55.6%
4K8−9
−25%
10
+25%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
−150%
15
+150%
Battlefield 5 9−10
−167%
24
+167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
−14.3%
16
+14.3%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−100%
12
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−117%
13
+117%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−136%
26
+136%
Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
−71.4%
12
+71.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
−20%
12
+20%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
−83.3%
11
+83.3%
Battlefield 5 9−10
−144%
22
+144%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+133%
6
−133%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−66.7%
10
+66.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−133%
14
+133%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−173%
30
+173%
Metro Exodus 5−6
−40%
7
+40%
Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
−28.6%
9−10
+28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+0%
10
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
−62.5%
13
+62.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
−33.3%
8
+33.3%
Battlefield 5 9−10
−156%
23
+156%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−50%
9
+50%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−133%
14
+133%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−109%
23
+109%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
+0%
8
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Metro Exodus 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−14.3%
8−9
+14.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Forza Horizon 4 3−4
−66.7%
5−6
+66.7%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 0−1 3

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−100%
4
+100%
Far Cry 5 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2
−800%
9
+800%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) and RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) compete in popular games:

1080p resolution:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 55.6% faster than RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)

4K resolution:

  • RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) is 25% faster than Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)

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

  • in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 133% faster than the RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000).
  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) is 800% faster than the Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5).

All in all, in popular games:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is ahead in 1 test (3%)
  • RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) is ahead in 33 tests (87%)
  • there's a draw in 4 tests (11%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 3.64 4.48
Recency 1 October 2015 26 October 2017
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm

The Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) is our recommended choice as it beats the Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) in performance tests.


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.


NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)
Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)

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Questions and comments

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