GeForce RTX 4090 vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Mobility Radeon HD 3870 with GeForce RTX 4090, including specs and performance data.

ATI Mobility HD 3870
2008
512 MB GDDR3, 55 Watt
1.39

RTX 4090 outperforms ATI Mobility HD 3870 by a whopping 7094% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking10001
Place by popularitynot in top-1005
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data18.80
Power efficiency1.8216.03
ArchitectureTeraScale (2005−2013)Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code nameM88AD102
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date4 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.

no data

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 cores32016384
Core clock speed660 MHz2235 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2520 MHz
Number of transistors666 million76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)55 Watt450 Watt
Texture fill rate10.561,290
Floating-point processing power0.4224 TFLOPS82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs16176
TMUs16512
Tensor Coresno data512
Ray Tracing Coresno data128

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 sizelargeno data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Lengthno data304 mm
Widthno data3-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 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 typeGDDR3GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount512 MB24 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed850 MHz1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth54.4 GB/s1.01 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 ConnectorsNo outputs1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX10.1 (10_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model4.16.8
OpenGL3.34.6
OpenCLN/A3.0
VulkanN/A1.3
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.

ATI Mobility HD 3870 1.39
RTX 4090 100.00
+7094%

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 3458
RTX 4090 137609
+3879%

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 HD3−4
−8833%
268
+8833%
1440p2−3
−10200%
206
+10200%
4K2−3
−7150%
145
+7150%

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 8833% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 4090 is 10200% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 4090 is 7150% 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 1.39 100.00
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 7094.2% 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.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
Mobility Radeon HD 3870
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
GeForce RTX 4090

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.


2.3 3 votes

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3.7 13896 votes

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.