ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 vs GeForce 840M

Place in the ranking	787	1000
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	5.96	1.76
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	GM108	M88
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	12 March 2014 (10 years ago)	4 June 2008 (16 years ago)

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	384	320
Core clock speed	1029 MHz	660 MHz
Boost clock speed	1124 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	no data	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	33 Watt	55 Watt
Texture fill rate	17.98	10.56
Floating-point processing power	0.8632 TFLOPS	0.4224 TFLOPS
ROPs	8	16
TMUs	16	16

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).

Laptop size	medium sized	large
Bus support	PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 2.0 x16

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	DDR3	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1001 MHz	850 MHz
Memory bandwidth	16.02 GB/s	54.4 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 Connectors

No outputs

Supported technologies

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

GPU Boost	2.0	no data
Optimus	+	-
GameWorks	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	5.1	4.1
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
OpenCL	1.2	N/A
Vulkan	1.1.126	N/A
CUDA	+	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

GeForce 840M 2.83
+104%

ATI Mobility HD 3870 1.39

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.

GeForce 840M 7191
+108%

ATI Mobility HD 3870 3458

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:

900p	45 +114%	21−24 −114%
Full HD	17 +113%	8−9 −113%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6
+25%

4−5

−25%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +50%	6−7 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2	0−1
Battlefield 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +400%	3−4 −400%
Hitman 3	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +15.2%	30−35 −15.2%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +50%	6−7 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2	0−1
Battlefield 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +400%	3−4 −400%
Hitman 3	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	23 +109%	10−12 −109%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +15.2%	30−35 −15.2%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +50%	6−7 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +400%	3−4 −400%
Hitman 3	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	6 −83.3%	10−12 +83.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +15.2%	30−35 −15.2%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8
+250%

2−3

−250%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Hitman 3	8−9 +14.3%	7−8 −14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	16−18 +183%	6−7 −183%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7
+50%

4−5

−50%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2	0−1
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3	0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2	0−1
Far Cry 5	1−2	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5
+33.3%

3−4

−33.3%

This is how GeForce 840M and ATI Mobility HD 3870 compete in popular games:

GeForce 840M is 114% faster in 900p
GeForce 840M is 113% faster in 1080p

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

in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GeForce 840M is 400% faster.
in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 is 83% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GeForce 840M is ahead in 45 tests (94%)
ATI Mobility HD 3870 is ahead in 1 test (2%)
there's a draw in 2 tests (4%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.83	1.39
Recency	12 March 2014	4 June 2008
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	33 Watt	55 Watt

GeForce 840M has a 103.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 96.4% more advanced lithography process, and 66.7% lower power consumption.

The GeForce 840M is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 3870 in performance tests.

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