GeForce RTX 4090 vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870

Place in the ranking	1010	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	18.56
Power efficiency	1.75	15.30
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.

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 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.

ATI Mobility HD 3870 1.40

RTX 4090 100.00
+7043%

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 HD	3−4 −8500%	258 +8500%
1440p	2−3 −9750%	197 +9750%
4K	2−3 −7050%	143 +7050%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	6.20
1440p	no data	8.12
4K	no data	11.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −2256%	212 +2256%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −5525%	225 +5525%
Elden Ring	1−2 −24800%	249 +24800%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −11600%	110−120 +11600%
Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −2289%	215 +2289%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2675%	111 +2675%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −6067%	555 +6067%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 −2129%	150−160 +2129%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −11600%	110−120 +11600%
Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −2111%	199 +2111%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2575%	107 +2575%
Dota 2	1−2 −19900%	200 +19900%
Elden Ring	1−2 −46700%	468 +46700%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −1255%	149 +1255%
Fortnite	6−7 −5033%	300−350 +5033%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −5989%	548 +5989%
Grand Theft Auto V	2−3 −8600%	174 +8600%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	14−16 −1333%	210−220 +1333%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 −2129%	150−160 +2129%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	7−8 −2386%	170−180 +2386%
World of Tanks	27−30 −862%	270−280 +862%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −11600%	110−120 +11600%
Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −1956%	185 +1956%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2525%	105 +2525%
Dota 2	1−2 −22300%	224 +22300%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −1845%	210−220 +1845%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −5944%	544 +5944%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	14−16 −1333%	210−220 +1333%

1440p
High Preset

PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	9−10 −1844%	170−180 +1844%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	90−95
World of Tanks	8−9 −6350%	500−550 +6350%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −1589%	152 +1589%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −3750%	77 +3750%
Far Cry 5	5−6 −3100%	160−170 +3100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 −8633%	262 +8633%
Valorant	7−8 −8071%	572 +8071%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2	16−18 −1069%	187 +1069%
Elden Ring	0−1	198
Grand Theft Auto V	14−16 −1147%	187 +1147%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	4−5 −5125%	200−210 +5125%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	60−65
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −1147%	187 +1147%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −9000%	90−95 +9000%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −3900%	40 +3900%
Dota 2	16−18 −1319%	227 +1319%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −10400%	100−110 +10400%
Valorant	1−2 −36300%	364 +36300%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Metro Exodus	178 +0%	178 +0%
Valorant	826 +0%	826 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Metro Exodus	183 +0%	183 +0%
Valorant	750−800 +0%	750−800 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Valorant

680

+0%

680

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	162 +0%	162 +0%
Elden Ring	343 +0%	343 +0%
Grand Theft Auto V	161 +0%	161 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	507 +0%	507 +0%
Metro Exodus	152 +0%	152 +0%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	166 +0%	166 +0%
Metro Exodus	137 +0%	137 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Counter-Strike 2	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Fortnite	95−100 +0%	95−100 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	284 +0%	284 +0%

This is how ATI Mobility HD 3870 and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 8500% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 9750% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 7050% faster in 4K

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

in Elden Ring, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 4090 is 46700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 4090 is ahead in 44 tests (73%)
there's a draw in 16 tests (27%)

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.