Radeon R9 M280X vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R9 M280X, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book
2015
1 GB GDDR5
3.69
+74.9%

Maxwell GPU Surface Book outperforms R9 M280X by an impressive 75% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking706864
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)
GPU code nameSurface BookSaturn
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 October 2015 (9 years ago)5 February 2015 (9 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 cores384896
Core clock speed954 MHz1000 MHz
Boost clock speed993 MHzno data
Number of transistorsno data2,080 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Texture fill rateno data61.60
Floating-point processing powerno data1.971 TFLOPS
ROPsno data16
TMUsno data56

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
Bus supportno dataNot Listed
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 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 typeGDDR5Not Listed
Maximum RAM amount1 GB0 MB
Memory bus width64 BitNot Listed
Memory clock speed5012 MHzno data
Memory bandwidthno data96 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.

FreeSync-+
HD3D-+
PowerTune-+
DualGraphics-+
ZeroCore-+
Switchable graphics-+
Optimus+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (FL 11_0)DirectX® 11
Shader Modelno data6.3
OpenGLno data4.4
OpenCLno dataNot Listed
Mantle-+
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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 3.69
+74.9%
R9 M280X 2.11

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 2577
R9 M280X 4698
+82.3%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 2076
R9 M280X 3498
+68.5%

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book 11380
R9 M280X 23201
+104%

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 HD23
−17.4%
27
+17.4%
4K30−35
+66.7%
18
−66.7%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 8−9
−62.5%
13
+62.5%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+100%
5−6
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+133%
9−10
−133%
Hitman 3 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+44.4%
18−20
−44.4%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
−114%
30
+114%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+16.7%
35−40
−16.7%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 8−9
+300%
2−3
−300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+100%
5−6
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+133%
9−10
−133%
Hitman 3 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+44.4%
18−20
−44.4%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
−160%
39
+160%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+16.7%
35−40
−16.7%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+57.1%
7−8
−57.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+133%
9−10
−133%
Hitman 3 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+44.4%
18−20
−44.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+66.7%
9
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+16.7%
35−40
−16.7%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Hitman 3 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24
+91.7%
12−14
−91.7%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%

4K
High Preset

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

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
+100%
1−2
−100%
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 Maxwell GPU Surface Book and R9 M280X compete in popular games:

  • R9 M280X is 17% faster in 1080p
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 67% faster in 4K

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

  • in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 300% faster.
  • in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the R9 M280X is 160% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is ahead in 49 tests (91%)
  • R9 M280X is ahead in 3 tests (6%)
  • there's a draw in 2 tests (4%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.69 2.11
Recency 1 October 2015 5 February 2015

Maxwell GPU Surface Book has a 74.9% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 7 months.

The Maxwell GPU Surface Book is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon R9 M280X in performance tests.


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

Vote for your favorite

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NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book
Maxwell GPU Surface Book
AMD Radeon R9 M280X
Radeon R9 M280X

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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2.7 3 votes

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Questions & comments

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