Radeon RX 540: specs and benchmarks

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Aggregate performance score

Radeon RX 540 provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 7.24% of a leader's which is GeForce RTX 4090.

Summary

AMD started Radeon RX 540 sales 11 November 2017. This is a laptop graphics card based on a GCN 4.0 architecture and made with 14 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamers. 2 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.5 GHz are supplied, and together with 128 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 96 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is a graphics card attached via PCIe 3.0 x8 interface. Power consumption is at 50 Watt.

Primary details

Some basic facts about Radeon RX 540: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in the ranking542
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Power efficiency9.93of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameLexa
Market segmentLaptop
Release date11 November 2017 (7 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Radeon RX 540's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon RX 540's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores512of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed1124 MHzof 2670 MHz (Arc B580)
Boost clock speed1219 MHzof 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors2,200 millionof 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology14 nmof 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)50 Wattof 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate39.01of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power1.248 TFLOPSof 109.7 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs16of 192 (Radeon RX 7900 XTX)
TMUs32of 1280 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon RX 540 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizelarge
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectorsNone

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon RX 540: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GBof 294912 (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width128 Bitof 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed1500 MHzof 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth96 GB/sof 5,171 GB/s (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Shared memory-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon RX 540. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display ConnectorsNo outputs

Supported technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by Radeon RX 540. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

FreeSync+

API compatibility

APIs supported by Radeon RX 540, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 (12_0)
Shader Model6.4
OpenGL4.6
OpenCL2.0
Vulkan1.2.131

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon RX 540. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RX 540 7.24

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

RX 540 2788

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

RX 540 4646

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

RX 540 13720

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

RX 540 3686

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

RX 540 24170

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

RX 540 9416

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

RX 540 138197

3DMark Time Spy Graphics

RX 540 787

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

RX 540 31

Gaming performance

Let's see how good Radeon RX 540 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD23

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 10−12

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
Battlefield 5 21−24
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
Far Cry 5 13
Far Cry New Dawn 20−22
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
Hitman 3 14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
Metro Exodus 21−24
Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 40
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
Battlefield 5 21−24
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
Far Cry 5 10
Far Cry New Dawn 20−22
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
Hitman 3 14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
Metro Exodus 21−24
Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
Far Cry 5 7
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
Hitman 3 14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 7
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
Far Cry New Dawn 10−12

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
Far Cry 5 8−9
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
Hitman 3 10−12
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
Metro Exodus 8−9
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 5−6
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
Watch Dogs: Legion 45−50

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
Hitman 3 3−4
Horizon Zero Dawn 21−24
Metro Exodus 4−5
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4−5

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
Far Cry 5 4−5
Forza Horizon 4 8−9
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2−3
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8

Closest competitors

Radeon RX 540's performance relative to its closest rivals among notebook graphics cards.


NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon RX 540 is GeForce GTX 770M, which is nearly equal in speed and higher by 1 position in our ranking.

Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon RX 540:

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon RX 540 according to our statistics.

All comparisons with Radeon RX 540

Community ratings

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


3.7 157 votes

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about Radeon RX 540, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.