Apple M1 GPU vs Radeon R9 255 OEM

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
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)no data
GPU code nameCape Verdeno data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date21 December 2013 (10 years ago)10 November 2020 (4 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 cores5128
Core clock speed900 MHzno data
Boost clock speed930 MHzno data
Number of transistors1,500 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)65 Wattno data
Texture fill rate29.76no data
Floating-point processing power0.9523 TFLOPSno data
ROPs16no data
TMUs32no data

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 3.0 x16no data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinno data

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 typeGDDR5no data
Maximum RAM amount2 GBno data
Memory bus width128 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1150 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth73.6 GB/sno data
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 outputsno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)no data
Shader Model5.1no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL1.2no data
Vulkan1.2.131-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 21 December 2013 10 November 2020
Chip lithography 28 nm 5 nm

Apple M1 GPU has an age advantage of 6 years, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 255 OEM and Apple M1 GPU. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 255 OEM is a desktop card while Apple M1 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 R9 255 OEM
Radeon R9 255 OEM
Apple M1 GPU
M1 GPU

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Community ratings

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5 1066 votes

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