GeForce 9800M GT vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 and GeForce 9800M GT, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2
2008
512 MB GDDR3, 110 Watt
2.22
+124%

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 outperforms 9800M GT by a whopping 124% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking8551106
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency1.411.06
ArchitectureTeraScale (2005−2013)Tesla (2006−2010)
GPU code nameM88G92
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 September 2008 (16 years ago)29 July 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 cores32096
Core clock speed660 MHz500 MHz
Number of transistors666 million754 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm65 nm
Power consumption (TDP)110 Watt65 Watt
Texture fill rate10.5624.00
Floating-point processing power0.4224 TFLOPS0.24 TFLOPS
Gigaflopsno data360
ROPs1616
TMUs1648

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
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone

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 typeGDDR3GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount512 MB512 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed850 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidth54.4 GB/s51.2 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 outputsNo outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX10.1 (10_1)11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model4.14.0
OpenGL3.33.3
OpenCLN/A1.1
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. 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.

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 2.22
+124%
9800M GT 0.99

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.

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 6895
+71.9%
9800M GT 4011

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Battlefield 5 2−3 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Forza Horizon 4 10−11
+150%
4−5
−150%
Hitman 3 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+46.2%
12−14
−46.2%
Metro Exodus 0−1 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+12.5%
30−35
−12.5%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Battlefield 5 2−3 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Forza Horizon 4 10−11
+150%
4−5
−150%
Hitman 3 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+46.2%
12−14
−46.2%
Metro Exodus 0−1 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+30%
10−11
−30%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+12.5%
30−35
−12.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Forza Horizon 4 10−11
+150%
4−5
−150%
Hitman 3 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+46.2%
12−14
−46.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+30%
10−11
−30%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+12.5%
30−35
−12.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Far Cry New Dawn 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1−2 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 1−2 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 12−14
+200%
4−5
−200%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%

4K
High Preset

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

4K
Ultra Preset

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

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%

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

  • in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 400% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is ahead in 41 test (95%)
  • there's a draw in 2 tests (5%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 2.22 0.99
Recency 1 September 2008 29 July 2008
Chip lithography 55 nm 65 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 110 Watt 65 Watt

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 has a 124.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 month, and a 18.2% more advanced lithography process.

9800M GT, on the other hand, has 69.2% lower power consumption.

The Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 9800M GT 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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ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2
Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT
GeForce 9800M GT

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 votes

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3.6 7 votes

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Questions & comments

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