ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Mobility Radeon HD 5870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book
2015
1 GB GDDR5
3.69
+24.7%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms ATI Mobility HD 5870 by a significant 25% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking708779
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiencyno data4.10
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameSurface BookBroadway
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 October 2015 (9 years ago)7 January 2010 (14 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 cores384800
Core clock speed954 MHz700 MHz
Boost clock speed993 MHzno data
Number of transistorsno data1,040 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data50 Watt
Texture fill rateno data28.00
Floating-point processing powerno data1.12 TFLOPS
ROPsno data16
TMUsno data40

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 sizeno datalarge
Interfaceno dataMXM-B (3.0)

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB1 GB
Memory bus width64 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed5012 MHz1000 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data64 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 dataNo outputs

Supported technologies

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

Optimus+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (FL 11_0)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Modelno data5.0
OpenGLno data4.4
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-N/A
CUDA+-

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:

900p35−40
+12.9%
31
−12.9%
Full HD24
−62.5%
39
+62.5%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+31.3%
16−18
−31.3%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+18.2%
21−24
−18.2%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+7.7%
35−40
−7.7%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+31.3%
16−18
−31.3%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+18.2%
21−24
−18.2%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+7.1%
14−16
−7.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+7.7%
35−40
−7.7%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+31.3%
16−18
−31.3%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+18.2%
21−24
−18.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+7.1%
14−16
−7.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+7.7%
35−40
−7.7%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
+20%
5−6
−20%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Hitman 3 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24
+27.8%
18−20
−27.8%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book and ATI Mobility HD 5870 compete in popular games:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 13% faster in 900p
  • ATI Mobility HD 5870 is 63% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is ahead in 54 tests (89%)
  • there's a draw in 7 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.69 2.96
Recency 1 October 2015 7 January 2010
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm

Maxwell GPU Surface Book has a 24.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 in performance tests.


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

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NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book
Maxwell GPU Surface Book
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Mobility Radeon HD 5870

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.


3.2 6 votes

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3.4 52 votes

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Questions & comments

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