Switch GPU vs Radeon HD 6490

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Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameRedwoodGM20B
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date4 July 2011 (13 years ago)17 March 2017 (7 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 cores320256
Core clock speed550 MHz384 MHz
Boost clock speedno data768 MHz
Number of transistors627 million2,000 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm20 nm
Power consumption (TDP)39 Watt15 Watt
Texture fill rate8.80012.29
Floating-point processing power0.352 TFLOPS0.3932 TFLOPS
ROPs88
TMUs1616

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).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16IGP
Length165 mmno data
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone

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 typeDDR2DDR4
Maximum RAM amount1 GB4 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed500 MHz1600 MHz
Memory bandwidth16 GB/s25.6 GB/s

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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGANo outputs
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)12 (12_1)
Shader Model5.06.4
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.21.2
VulkanN/A1.1.126
CUDA-5.3

Pros & cons summary


Recency 4 July 2011 17 March 2017
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 20 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 39 Watt 15 Watt

Switch GPU has an age advantage of 5 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 160% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6490 and Switch GPU. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6490 is a desktop card while Switch GPU is a notebook 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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AMD Radeon HD 6490
Radeon HD 6490
NVIDIA Switch GPU
Switch GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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