Radeon 540X vs Quadro FX 880M

Place in the ranking	1204	704
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.16	5.19
Architecture	Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	GT216	Lexa
Market segment	Mobile workstation	Laptop
Release date	7 January 2010 (14 years ago)	5 September 2018 (6 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	48	512
Core clock speed	550 MHz	980 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1046 MHz
Number of transistors	486 million	2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	8.800	33.47
Floating-point processing power	0.1162 TFLOPS	1.071 TFLOPS
ROPs	8	16
TMUs	16	32

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	medium sized	no data
Interface	MXM-A (3.0)	PCIe 3.0 x8
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	1 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	790 MHz	1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	25.28 GB/s	48 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

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1 (10_1)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	4.1	6.4
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	2.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2.131
CUDA	1.2	-

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.

FX 880M 0.58

Radeon 540X 3.72
+541%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

FX 880M 223

Radeon 540X 1437
+544%

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.

FX 880M 2639

Radeon 540X 11545
+338%

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

+0%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−200%

9
+200%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −300%	16 +300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −167%	8−9 +167%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −133%	7−8 +133%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −900%	10−11 +900%
Hitman 3	5−6 −120%	11 +120%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −136%	24−27 +136%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −133%	14−16 +133%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33 −40%	40−45 +40%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −175%	10−12 +175%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −167%	8−9 +167%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −133%	7−8 +133%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −900%	10−11 +900%
Hitman 3	5−6 −80%	9−10 +80%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −136%	24−27 +136%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −233%	20 +233%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −50%	14−16 +50%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33 −40%	40−45 +40%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −175%	10−12 +175%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −167%	8−9 +167%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −133%	7−8 +133%
Hitman 3	5−6 −80%	9−10 +80%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −136%	24−27 +136%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −183%	17 +183%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 +0%	10 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33 −40%	40−45 +40%

1440p
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

1−2

−500%

6−7
+500%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	0−1	3−4
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −300%	4−5 +300%
Hitman 3	6−7 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	3−4 −200%	9−10 +200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −2200%	21−24 +2200%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−133%

7−8
+133%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	2−3

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−150%

5−6
+150%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12 +0%	12 +0%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Metro Exodus	23 +0%	23 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	19 +0%	19 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Metro Exodus	17 +0%	17 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14 +0%	14 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5

7−8

+0%

7−8

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

This is how FX 880M and Radeon 540X compete in popular games:

A tie in 1080p

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

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the Radeon 540X is 2200% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Radeon 540X is ahead in 34 tests (56%)
there's a draw in 27 tests (44%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.58	3.72
Recency	7 January 2010	5 September 2018
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	2 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	50 Watt

FX 880M has 42.9% lower power consumption.

Radeon 540X, on the other hand, has a 541.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 185.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon 540X is our recommended choice as it beats the Quadro FX 880M in performance tests.

Be aware that Quadro FX 880M is a mobile workstation card while Radeon 540X is a mobile workstation one.

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