GeForce GT 720M vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2

Place in the ranking	857	1057
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.40	2.47
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	Kepler 2.0 (2013−2015)
GPU code name	M88	GK208
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 September 2008 (16 years ago)	25 December 2013 (10 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	320	192
Core clock speed	660 MHz	719 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	758 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	915 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	33 Watt
Texture fill rate	10.56	12.13
Floating-point processing power	0.4224 TFLOPS	0.2911 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	8
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	large	medium sized
Bus support	no data	PCI Express 2.0
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x8

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	GDDR3	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Standard memory configuration	no data	DDR3
Memory bus width	256 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	850 MHz	800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	54.4 GB/s	12.8 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	no data	Up to 2560x1600
LVDS signal support	no data	Up to 1920x1200
VGA аnalog display support	no data	Up to 2048x1536
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	no data	Up to 2560x1600
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	10.1 (10_1)	12 API
Shader Model	4.1	5.1
OpenGL	3.3	4.5
OpenCL	N/A	1.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.1.126
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 2.24
+88.2%

GT 720M 1.19

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
+50.4%

GT 720M 4585

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

24−27
+84.6%

−84.6%

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 +100%	1−2 −100%
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 +100%	3−4 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 −200%	30 +200%
Hitman 3	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +35.7%	14−16 −35.7%
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 +25%	8−9 −25%
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 +100%	1−2 −100%
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 +100%	3−4 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 +900%	1−2 −900%
Hitman 3	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +35.7%	14−16 −35.7%
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 +25%	8−9 −25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −23.1%	16 +23.1%
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 +900%	1−2 −900%
Hitman 3	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +35.7%	14−16 −35.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 +25%	8−9 −25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +18.2%	10−12 −18.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +12.5%	30−35 −12.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6
+150%

2−3

−150%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

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 +140%	5−6 −140%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6
+25%

4−5

−25%

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%	1−2 +0%
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%

This is how ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 and GT 720M compete in popular games:

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 85% faster in 1080p

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 900% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GT 720M is 200% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is ahead in 42 tests (89%)
GT 720M is ahead in 2 tests (4%)
there's a draw in 3 tests (6%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.24	1.19
Recency	1 September 2008	25 December 2013
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	33 Watt

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 has a 88.2% higher aggregate performance score.

GT 720M, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 5 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 96.4% more advanced lithography process, and 233.3% lower power consumption.

The Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 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.