ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac Edition vs HD 6550A
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 917 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 3.61 | no data |
| Architecture | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) | TeraScale (2005−2013) |
| GPU code name | Pinewood | RV670 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 7 February 2011 (13 years ago) | 12 June 2008 (16 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 | 480 | 320 |
| Core clock speed | 550 MHz | 777 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 627 million | 666 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 55 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 106 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 13.20 | 12.43 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.528 TFLOPS | 0.4973 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 8 | 16 |
| TMUs | 24 | 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).
| Interface | MXM-A (3.0) | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 241 mm |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 1x 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 type | GDDR3 | GDDR4 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 512 MB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 800 MHz | 1126 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | 72.06 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 Connectors | No outputs | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.2 (11_0) | 10.1 (10_1) |
| Shader Model | 5.0 | 4.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.4 | 3.3 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 7 February 2011 | 12 June 2008 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 512 MB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 55 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 106 Watt |
HD 6550A has an age advantage of 2 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 202.9% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6550A and Radeon HD 3870 Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 6550A is a notebook card while Radeon HD 3870 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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