ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 vs GeForce GT 720M

Place in the ranking	1053	1003
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	2.49	1.75
Architecture	Kepler 2.0 (2013−2015)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	GK208	M88
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	25 December 2013 (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	192	320
Core clock speed	719 MHz	660 MHz
Boost clock speed	758 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	915 million	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	33 Watt	55 Watt
Texture fill rate	12.13	10.56
Floating-point processing power	0.2911 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	no data
Interface	PCIe 2.0 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	2 GB	512 MB
Standard memory configuration	DDR3	no data
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	850 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 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	No outputs
eDP 1.2 signal support	Up to 2560x1600	no data
LVDS signal support	Up to 1920x1200	no data
VGA аnalog display support	Up to 2048x1536	no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	Up to 2560x1600	no data
HDMI	+	-
HDCP content protection	+	-
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI	+	-
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming	+	-

Supported technologies

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

Blu-Ray 3D Support	+	-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+	-
Optimus	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 API	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	5.1	4.1
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
OpenCL	1.1	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.

GT 720M 1.19

ATI Mobility HD 3870 1.39
+16.8%

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.

GT 720M 4585
+32.6%

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:

Full HD

−14.3%

16−18
+14.3%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−33.3%

4−5
+33.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	30 +900%	3−4 −900%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16 +45.5%	10−12 −45.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

+0%

2−3

+0%

1440p
High Preset

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

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	0−1	1−2
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−50%

3−4
+50%

This is how GT 720M and ATI Mobility HD 3870 compete in popular games:

ATI Mobility HD 3870 is 14% faster in 1080p

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GT 720M is 900% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 is 200% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GT 720M is ahead in 2 tests (4%)
ATI Mobility HD 3870 is ahead in 15 tests (32%)
there's a draw in 30 tests (64%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.19	1.39
Recency	25 December 2013	4 June 2008
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	33 Watt	55 Watt

GT 720M has an age advantage of 5 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 96.4% more advanced lithography process, and 66.7% lower power consumption.

ATI Mobility HD 3870, on the other hand, has a 16.8% higher aggregate performance score.

The Mobility Radeon HD 3870 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 720M in performance tests.

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