ATI Fire GL3 vs Switch GPU
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019) | IBM (1999−2001) |
| GPU code name | GM20B | GT1000 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Workstation |
| Release date | 17 March 2017 (7 years ago) | 1 June 2000 (24 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $1,999 |
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 | 256 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 384 MHz | 205 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 768 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 2,000 million | no data |
| Manufacturing process technology | 20 nm | 250 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 12.29 | 0.21 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.3932 TFLOPS | no data |
| ROPs | 8 | 1 |
| TMUs | 16 | 1 |
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).
| Interface | IGP | AGP 4x |
| 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 | DDR4 | DDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 128 MB |
| Memory bus width | 64 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1600 MHz | 120 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | 7.68 GB/s |
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 DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 6.0 |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | no data |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 1.2 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | N/A |
| CUDA | 5.3 | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 17 March 2017 | 1 June 2000 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 128 MB |
| Chip lithography | 20 nm | 250 nm |
Switch GPU has an age advantage of 16 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 1150% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Switch GPU and Fire GL3. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Switch GPU is a notebook card while Fire GL3 is a workstation 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
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