ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 vs GeForce GTS 250M

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTS 250M and Mobility Radeon HD 3870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTS 250M
2009
1 GB GDDR5, 28 Watt
1.42
+2.9%

GTS 250M outperforms ATI Mobility HD 3870 by a minimal 3% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking10081019
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency3.531.74
ArchitectureTesla 2.0 (2007−2013)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameGT215M88
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date15 June 2009 (15 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 cores96320
Core clock speed500 MHz660 MHz
Number of transistors727 million666 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)28 Watt55 Watt
Texture fill rate16.0010.56
Floating-point processing power0.24 TFLOPS0.4224 TFLOPS
Gigaflops360no data
ROPs816
TMUs3216

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 sizelargelarge
Bus supportPCI-E 2.0no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
SLI options+-
MXM TypeMXM 3.0 Type-Bno data

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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount1 GB512 MB
Memory bus width128 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speedUp to 2000 MHz850 MHz
Memory bandwidth51.2 GB/s54.4 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 ConnectorsHDMIVGALVDSSingle Link DVIDisplayPortDual Link DVINo outputs
HDMI+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data

Supported technologies

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

Power management8.0no data

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_1)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.14.1
OpenGL2.13.3
OpenCL1.1N/A
VulkanN/AN/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.

GTS 250M 1.42
+2.9%
ATI Mobility HD 3870 1.38

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.

GTS 250M 3659
+5.8%
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 HD28
+3.7%
27−30
−3.7%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Battlefield 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Fortnite 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Forza Horizon 5 0−1 0−1
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Valorant 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Battlefield 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Dota 2 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Fortnite 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Forza Horizon 5 0−1 0−1
Grand Theft Auto V 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Metro Exodus 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Valorant 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Dota 2 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Forza Horizon 5 0−1 0−1
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Valorant 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Valorant 6−7
+20%
5−6
−20%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Grand Theft Auto V 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Valorant 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Dota 2 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

This is how GTS 250M and ATI Mobility HD 3870 compete in popular games:

  • GTS 250M is 4% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Valorant, with 1440p resolution and the High Preset, the GTS 250M is 20% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTS 250M is ahead in 2 tests (4%)
  • there's a draw in 47 tests (96%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 1.42 1.38
Recency 15 June 2009 4 June 2008
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 28 Watt 55 Watt

GTS 250M has a 2.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 96.4% lower power consumption.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between GeForce GTS 250M and Mobility Radeon HD 3870.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M
GeForce GTS 250M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Mobility Radeon HD 3870

Other comparisons

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.


3.7 7 votes

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2.3 3 votes

Rate Mobility Radeon HD 3870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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