GeForce GT 420 OEM vs Radeon HD 7870M
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 697 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 6.01 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | Fermi (2010−2014) |
| GPU code name | Heathrow | GF108 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 24 April 2012 (12 years ago) | 3 September 2010 (14 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 | 640 | 48 |
| Core clock speed | 800 MHz | 700 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,500 million | 585 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 45 Watt | 50 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 32.00 | 2.800 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.024 TFLOPS | 0.1344 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 4 |
| TMUs | 40 | 4 |
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 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 145 mm |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| 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 | GDDR5 | DDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1000 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 64 GB/s | 28.8 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | no data |
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 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA |
| HDMI | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
| CUDA | - | 2.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 24 April 2012 | 3 September 2010 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 45 Watt | 50 Watt |
HD 7870M has an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 11.1% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7870M and GeForce GT 420 OEM. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 7870M is a notebook card while GeForce GT 420 OEM is a desktop one.
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.
