GeForce RTX 4090 vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Aggregate performance score
We've compared Mobility Radeon HD 3870 with GeForce RTX 4090, including specs and performance data.
RTX 4090 outperforms ATI Mobility HD 3870 by a whopping 7043% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 1008 | 1 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 6 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 18.83 |
| Power efficiency | 1.75 | 15.23 |
| Architecture | TeraScale (2005−2013) | Ada Lovelace (2022−2024) |
| GPU code name | M88 | AD102 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 4 June 2008 (16 years ago) | 20 September 2022 (2 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $1,599 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 16384 |
| Core clock speed | 660 MHz | 2235 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 2520 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 666 million | 76,300 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 55 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 55 Watt | 450 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 10.56 | 1,290 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.4224 TFLOPS | 82.58 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 176 |
| TMUs | 16 | 512 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 512 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 128 |
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 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 304 mm |
| Width | no data | 3-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 1x 16-pin |
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 | GDDR6X |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 24 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 850 MHz | 1313 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 54.4 GB/s | 1.01 TB/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 | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| HDMI | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 10.1 (10_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 6.8 |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | N/A | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | N/A | 1.3 |
| CUDA | - | 8.9 |
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.
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.
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 | 3−4
−8533%
| 259
+8533%
|
| 1440p | 2−3
−9900%
| 200
+9900%
|
| 4K | 2−3
−7050%
| 143
+7050%
|
Cost per frame, $
| 1080p | no data | 6.17 |
| 1440p | no data | 8.00 |
| 4K | no data | 11.18 |
FPS performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
−5525%
|
225
+5525%
|
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 6−7
−3817%
|
235
+3817%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 4−5
−2900%
|
120−130
+2900%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
−5450%
|
222
+5450%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 1−2
−11700%
|
110−120
+11700%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 3−4
−6600%
|
200−210
+6600%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 3−4
−9600%
|
290−300
+9600%
|
| Hitman 3 | 6−7
−2050%
|
120−130
+2050%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 14−16
−2414%
|
350−400
+2414%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2−3
−6100%
|
120−130
+6100%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 8−9
−5675%
|
450−500
+5675%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 30−35
−367%
|
150−160
+367%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 6−7
−3283%
|
200−210
+3283%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 4−5
−2900%
|
120−130
+2900%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
−5250%
|
214
+5250%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 1−2
−11700%
|
110−120
+11700%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 3−4
−6600%
|
200−210
+6600%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 3−4
−9600%
|
290−300
+9600%
|
| Hitman 3 | 6−7
−2050%
|
120−130
+2050%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 14−16
−2414%
|
350−400
+2414%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2−3
−6100%
|
120−130
+6100%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 8−9
−6750%
|
548
+6750%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10−12
−2091%
|
240−250
+2091%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 30−35
−367%
|
150−160
+367%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 6−7
−2883%
|
179
+2883%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 4−5
−2900%
|
120−130
+2900%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
−5150%
|
210
+5150%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 1−2
−11700%
|
110−120
+11700%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 3−4
−9600%
|
290−300
+9600%
|
| Hitman 3 | 6−7
−2050%
|
120−130
+2050%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 14−16
−2714%
|
394
+2714%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 8−9
−6663%
|
541
+6663%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10−12
−2673%
|
305
+2673%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 30−35
−364%
|
153
+364%
|
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2−3
−6100%
|
120−130
+6100%
|
1440p
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 1−2
−16500%
|
160−170
+16500%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 2−3
−5500%
|
110−120
+5500%
|
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 1−2
−15400%
|
155
+15400%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 0−1 | 80−85 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 1−2
−15300%
|
154
+15300%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 1−2
−8300%
|
80−85
+8300%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
−1871%
|
130−140
+1871%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 5−6
−7660%
|
388
+7660%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 1−2
−26700%
|
268
+26700%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 6−7
−3900%
|
240−250
+3900%
|
1440p
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 4−5
−3125%
|
120−130
+3125%
|
4K
High Preset
| Far Cry New Dawn | 0−1 | 65−70 |
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 1−2
−11900%
|
120
+11900%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 1−2
−11900%
|
120
+11900%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 0−1 | 50−55 |
| Far Cry 5 | 0−1 | 50−55 |
4K
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 3−4
−3600%
|
110−120
+3600%
|
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 287
+0%
|
287
+0%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 240−250
+0%
|
240−250
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 150−160
+0%
|
150−160
+0%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 248
+0%
|
248
+0%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 240−250
+0%
|
240−250
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 150−160
+0%
|
150−160
+0%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 220
+0%
|
220
+0%
|
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 183
+0%
|
183
+0%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 270−280
+0%
|
270−280
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 152
+0%
|
152
+0%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 504
+0%
|
504
+0%
|
4K
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 85−90
+0%
|
85−90
+0%
|
| Hitman 3 | 80−85
+0%
|
80−85
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 105
+0%
|
105
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 140−150
+0%
|
140−150
+0%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 281
+0%
|
281
+0%
|
4K
Ultra Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 80
+0%
|
80
+0%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 250−260
+0%
|
250−260
+0%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 282
+0%
|
282
+0%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 117
+0%
|
117
+0%
|
This is how ATI Mobility HD 3870 and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:
- RTX 4090 is 8533% faster in 1080p
- RTX 4090 is 9900% faster in 1440p
- RTX 4090 is 7050% faster in 4K
Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:
- in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 4090 is 26700% faster.
All in all, in popular games:
- RTX 4090 is ahead in 48 tests (71%)
- there's a draw in 20 tests (29%)
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 1.40 | 100.00 |
| Recency | 4 June 2008 | 20 September 2022 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 24 GB |
| Chip lithography | 55 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 55 Watt | 450 Watt |
ATI Mobility HD 3870 has 718.2% lower power consumption.
RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 7042.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 14 years, a 4700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 1000% more advanced lithography process.
The GeForce RTX 4090 is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 3870 in performance tests.
Be aware that Mobility Radeon HD 3870 is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 4090 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
