GeForce MX230 vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2

Place in the ranking	857	644
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.41	32.85
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	Pascal (2016−2021)
GPU code name	M88	GP108
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 September 2008 (16 years ago)	21 February 2019 (5 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	256
Core clock speed	660 MHz	1519 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1582 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	1,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	10 Watt
Texture fill rate	10.56	25.31
Floating-point processing power	0.4224 TFLOPS	0.81 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	16
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
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	no data	None

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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	850 MHz	1502 MHz
Memory bandwidth	54.4 GB/s	48.06 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

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.

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	4.1	6.4
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	N/A	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	1.2.131
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:

Full HD

9−10

−133%

21
+133%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6

−60%

8−9
+60%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 −62.5%	13 +62.5%
Battlefield 5	2−3 −850%	19 +850%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −133%	14 +133%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −60%	8−9 +60%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −250%	14 +250%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −183%	17 +183%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 −490%	59 +490%
Hitman 3	7−8 −42.9%	10−11 +42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −63.2%	30−35 +63.2%
Metro Exodus	0−1	18
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 −160%	12−14 +160%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −130%	23 +130%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −25%	45−50 +25%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 −100%	16 +100%
Battlefield 5	2−3 −550%	13 +550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −117%	13 +117%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −60%	8−9 +60%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −200%	12 +200%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −100%	12 +100%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 −430%	53 +430%
Hitman 3	7−8 −42.9%	10−11 +42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −63.2%	30−35 +63.2%
Metro Exodus	0−1	13
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 −160%	12−14 +160%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −70%	16−18 +70%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −30.8%	16−18 +30.8%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −25%	45−50 +25%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 +33.3%	6 −33.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −50%	9 +50%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −60%	8−9 +60%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −75%	7 +75%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 −20%	12 +20%
Hitman 3	7−8 −42.9%	10−11 +42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −63.2%	30−35 +63.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −70%	16−18 +70%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +44.4%	9 −44.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −25%	45−50 +25%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−160%

12−14
+160%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −200%	9−10 +200%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −133%	7−8 +133%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −100%	4−5 +100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −300%	4−5 +300%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −150%	5−6 +150%
Hitman 3	7−8 −28.6%	9−10 +28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 −83.3%	10−12 +83.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −300%	4−5 +300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −150%	30−33 +150%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−80%

9−10
+80%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	0−1	3−4
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	1−2

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−66.7%

5−6
+66.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Forza Horizon 4	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Metro Exodus	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

This is how ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 and GeForce MX230 compete in popular games:

GeForce MX230 is 133% faster in 1080p

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is 44% faster.
in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GeForce MX230 is 850% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

ATI Mobility HD 3870 X2 is ahead in 2 tests (3%)
GeForce MX230 is ahead in 52 tests (81%)
there's a draw in 10 tests (16%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.24	4.75
Recency	1 September 2008	21 February 2019
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	10 Watt

GeForce MX230 has a 112.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 292.9% more advanced lithography process, and 1000% lower power consumption.

The GeForce MX230 is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 in performance tests.

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