Radeon 540 vs Apple M1 8-Core GPU

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Apple M1 8-Core GPU with Radeon 540, including specs and performance data.

Apple M1 8-Core GPU
2020
14.54
+306%

Apple M1 8-Core GPU outperforms 540 by a whopping 306% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking356715
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data0.10
Power efficiencyno data4.99
Architectureno dataGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameno dataLexa
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date10 November 2020 (4 years ago)20 April 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$79

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores8384
Core clock speed1278 MHz1183 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1124 MHz
Number of transistorsno data2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology5 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data50 Watt
Texture fill rateno data28.39
Floating-point processing powerno data0.9085 TFLOPS
ROPsno data16
TMUsno data24

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).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x8
Lengthno data145 mm
Widthno data1-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone

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 typeno dataGDDR5
Maximum RAM amountno data1 GB
Memory bus widthno data32 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1500 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data24 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 Connectorsno data2x DisplayPort 1.4a

API compatibility

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

DirectXno data12 (12_0)
Shader Modelno data6.7
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data2.1
Vulkan-1.3

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
+367%
6−7
−367%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data13.17

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+340%
5−6
−340%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
+357%
7−8
−357%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
+360%
5−6
−360%
Battlefield 5 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+367%
6−7
−367%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+340%
5−6
−340%
Far Cry 5 30−35
+313%
8−9
−313%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
+338%
21−24
−338%
Hitman 3 27−30
+350%
6−7
−350%
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
+350%
16−18
−350%
Metro Exodus 45−50
+370%
10−11
−370%
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+322%
18−20
−322%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
+357%
7−8
−357%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
+360%
5−6
−360%
Battlefield 5 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+367%
6−7
−367%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+340%
5−6
−340%
Far Cry 5 30−35
+313%
8−9
−313%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
+338%
21−24
−338%
Hitman 3 27−30
+350%
6−7
−350%
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
+350%
16−18
−350%
Metro Exodus 45−50
+370%
10−11
−370%
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
+325%
8−9
−325%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+322%
18−20
−322%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
+357%
7−8
−357%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
+360%
5−6
−360%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+367%
6−7
−367%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+340%
5−6
−340%
Far Cry 5 30−35
+313%
8−9
−313%
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
+338%
21−24
−338%
Hitman 3 27−30
+350%
6−7
−350%
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
+350%
16−18
−350%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
+325%
8−9
−325%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+322%
18−20
−322%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 27−30
+350%
6−7
−350%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
+340%
5−6
−340%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+367%
3−4
−367%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−12
+450%
2−3
−450%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Far Cry 5 16−18
+433%
3−4
−433%
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
+350%
16−18
−350%
Hitman 3 16−18
+325%
4−5
−325%
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30
+314%
7−8
−314%
Metro Exodus 24−27
+380%
5−6
−380%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
+380%
5−6
−380%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+314%
21−24
−314%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
+360%
5−6
−360%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
+367%
3−4
−367%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+400%
2−3
−400%
Hitman 3 10−11
+400%
2−3
−400%
Horizon Zero Dawn 65−70
+331%
16−18
−331%
Metro Exodus 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3 0−1
Far Cry 5 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
+375%
4−5
−375%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
+333%
3−4
−333%

This is how Apple M1 8-Core GPU and Radeon 540 compete in popular games:

  • Apple M1 8-Core GPU is 367% faster in 1080p

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 14.54 3.58
Recency 10 November 2020 20 April 2017
Chip lithography 5 nm 14 nm

Apple M1 8-Core GPU has a 306.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, and a 180% more advanced lithography process.

The Apple M1 8-Core GPU is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 540 in performance tests.

Be aware that Apple M1 8-Core GPU is a notebook card while Radeon 540 is a desktop one.


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

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Apple M1 8-Core GPU
M1 8-Core GPU
AMD Radeon 540
Radeon 540

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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


4 909 votes

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3.1 46 votes

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Questions & comments

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