GeForce MX230 vs ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Aggregate performance score
We've compared Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce MX230, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.
MX230 outperforms ATI Mobility HD 4870 by a whopping 123% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 869 | 645 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 32.55 |
| Architecture | TeraScale (2005−2013) | Pascal (2016−2021) |
| GPU code name | M98 | GP108 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Release date | 9 January 2009 (15 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 | 800 | 256 |
| Core clock speed | 550 MHz | 1519 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1582 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 956 million | 1,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 55 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | no data | 10 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 22.00 | 25.31 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.88 TFLOPS | 0.81 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 16 |
| TMUs | 40 | 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 | 888 MHz | 1502 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 56.83 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 | 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 | 1.1 | 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 | 28
+33.3%
| 21
−33.3%
|
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 | 7−8
−85.7%
|
13
+85.7%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 2−3
−850%
|
19
+850%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 5−6
−180%
|
14
+180%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 5−6
−60%
|
8−9
+60%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 3−4
−367%
|
14
+367%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 5−6
−240%
|
17
+240%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 9−10
−556%
|
59
+556%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
−42.9%
|
10−11
+42.9%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−72.2%
|
30−35
+72.2%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 4−5
−225%
|
12−14
+225%
|
| 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 | 7−8
−129%
|
16
+129%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 2−3
−550%
|
13
+550%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 5−6
−160%
|
13
+160%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 5−6
−60%
|
8−9
+60%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 3−4
−300%
|
12
+300%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 5−6
−140%
|
12
+140%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 9−10
−489%
|
53
+489%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
−42.9%
|
10−11
+42.9%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−72.2%
|
30−35
+72.2%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 4−5
−225%
|
12−14
+225%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 10−11
−70%
|
16−18
+70%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 12−14
−41.7%
|
16−18
+41.7%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 35−40
−25%
|
45−50
+25%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 7−8
+16.7%
|
6
−16.7%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 5−6
−80%
|
9
+80%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 5−6
−60%
|
8−9
+60%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 3−4
−133%
|
7
+133%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 9−10
−33.3%
|
12
+33.3%
|
| Hitman 3 | 7−8
−42.9%
|
10−11
+42.9%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−72.2%
|
30−35
+72.2%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 10−11
−70%
|
16−18
+70%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 12−14
+33.3%
|
9
−33.3%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 35−40
−25%
|
45−50
+25%
|
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 4−5
−225%
|
12−14
+225%
|
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
| 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%
|
| Metro Exodus | 18
+0%
|
18
+0%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 5−6
+0%
|
5−6
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 13
+0%
|
13
+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
| Battlefield 5 | 3−4
+0%
|
3−4
+0%
|
| 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 4870 and GeForce MX230 compete in popular games:
- ATI Mobility HD 4870 is 33% 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 4870 is 33% 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 4870 is ahead in 2 tests (3%)
- GeForce MX230 is ahead in 52 tests (78%)
- there's a draw in 13 tests (19%)
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 2.13 | 4.75 |
| Recency | 9 January 2009 | 21 February 2019 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 55 nm | 14 nm |
GeForce MX230 has a 123% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 292.9% more advanced lithography process.
The GeForce MX230 is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 4870 in performance tests.
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.
