ATI Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition vs Quadro FX 880M

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking1202not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency1.15no data
ArchitectureTesla 2.0 (2007−2013)TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code nameGT216RV770
Market segmentMobile workstationDesktop
Release date7 January 2010 (14 years ago)6 January 2009 (15 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 cores48800
Core clock speed550 MHz750 MHz
Number of transistors486 million956 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)35 Watt150 Watt
Texture fill rate8.80030.00
Floating-point processing power0.1162 TFLOPS1.2 TFLOPS
ROPs816
TMUs1640

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 sizemedium sizedno data
InterfaceMXM-A (3.0)PCIe 2.0 x16
Lengthno data250 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data2x 6-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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB512 MB
Memory bus width128 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed790 MHz850 MHz
Memory bandwidth25.28 GB/s108.8 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 ConnectorsNo outputs1x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_1)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.14.1
OpenGL3.33.3
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA1.2-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 7 January 2010 6 January 2009
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 35 Watt 150 Watt

FX 880M has an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 328.6% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Quadro FX 880M and Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Quadro FX 880M is a mobile workstation card while Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition is a desktop one.


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

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NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M
Quadro FX 880M
ATI Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition
Radeon HD 4870 Mac Edition

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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