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ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870

The ATI Mobilty Radeon HD 4870 from AMD is a high-end DirectX 10.1 notebook graphics card. Technically, it is based on the desktop HD 4850 and 4870 GPUs but with a lower clock rate to save energy. The HD 4870 is also equipped with GDDR5 RAM, similar to its desktop variations. The successor of the HD 4870 is the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 which supports DirectX 11.

The gaming performance of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 should be comparable to, but still a bit below, the desktop HD 4850. The high amount of shaders and the 256 bit bus allows the Mobility HD 4870 to run every DirectX 9 game in high resolutions and detail settings. Demanding DirectX 10 games, such as Crysis, can be played fluently with medium to high details. Compared to the GeForce GTX 280M, the Mobility HD 4870 delivers a similar level of performance in games.

The Mobility HD 4870 is based on the RV770 chip and features 800 stream processors (160 5-dimensional shader cores). These cores do the graphics work that would normally be done by the shader- and pixel pipelines of older GPUs. The stream processors are also called ALUs and are grouped in five-way VLIW units. Each of the five instructions of a VLIW bundle has to be independent from the others and therefore much of the performance of the HD 4870 depends on the optimization of the driver.

 

The Mobility Radeon HD 4870 includes Avivo HD, UVD2 and an onboard soundchip for 7.1 sound output over HDMI or DisplayPort. The UVD2 supports full bitstream decoding of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 streams. In addition to this, it also supports dual video stream decoding and Picture-in Picture mode for full compliancy of the current BD-Live standard. Simply put, the Avivo HD technology handles all video tasks and enables the GPU to decode HD videos.

AMD has published a current consumption of about 65 Watt for the Mobility HD 4870. Still, it is unclear if this value represents the chip alone or the entire MXM board including the memory (which we estimate would contribute about 5 Watts).

Compared to the desktop ATI Radeon HD 4870, the mobile 4870 features a slower core clock and should therefore perform more similarly to the desktop HD 4850 and 4830.

ManufacturerATI
Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series

Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 1600@550MHz

Mobility Radeon HD 4870 800@550MHz

CodenameM98-XT
ArchitectureTerascale 1
Pipelines800 - unified
Core Speed *550 MHz
Shader Speed *550 MHz
Memory Speed *888 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory1024 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1
Transistors956 Million
technology55 nm
Features

OpenGL 2.0, PCI-E 2.0 x16, Powerplay, DisplayPort support up to 2560x1600, HDMI support up to 1920x1080 (both with 7.1 AC3 Audio), 1x Dual-Link/Single-Link DVI, 1x Single-Link DVI Support (all display ports have to be supported by the laptop manufacturer)

Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement09.01.2009
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityrade...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 6631     avg: 6631 (18%)     max: 6631 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 6139     avg: 6139 (17%)     max: 6139 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 10183     avg: 10655 (36%)     max: 11127 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 14594     avg: 16348.5 (44%)     max: 18103 Points
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 9500     avg: 9500 (36%)     max: 9500 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 5190     avg: 5190 (48%)     max: 5190 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.2     avg: 7.2 (91%)     max: 7.2 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.2     avg: 7.2 (91%)     max: 7.2 points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

CoD Modern Warfare 2
med.:
46.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
30.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Risen
Risen (2009)
med.:
50  fps      Compare
ultra:
28.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Resident Evil 5 (2009): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Need for Speed Shift
Need for Speed Shift (2009)
med.:
51.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
30.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Colin McRae: DIRT 2
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009)
med.:
65.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
29.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Anno 1404
Anno 1404 (2009)
ultra:
58.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
ArmA 2 (2009): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
F.E.A.R. 2
F.E.A.R. 2 (2009)
high:
88.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
49.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings med.. - more...
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2 (2008)
low:
76  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Crysis Warhead (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings low. - more...
Supreme Commander - FA Bench
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007)
high:
50  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
high:
50  fps      Compare
ultra:
14.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)
high:
43.9  fps      Compare
ultra:
13.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
World in Conflict - Benchmark (2007): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark (2005)
high:
165  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F.E.A.R. (2005): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo (1999)
high:
582  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.

For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List

Benchmarks by AMD

AMD published some relative benchmarks of the new HD 4870 in relation to the old HD 3870. The benchmarks were conducted in 1920x1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF.

Relative performance of the HD 4870 to the HD 3870 conducted with a desktop Phenom x4 9950 in 1920x1200 4xAA, 8xAF
Relative performance of the HD 4870 to the HD 3870 conducted with a desktop Phenom x4 9950 in 1920x1200 4xAA, 8xAF

No reviews found for this graphics card.

» Comparison of GPUs
Detailled list of all laptop GPUs with a short description. Classified and sorted by performance.

» Benchmark List
Sortable and restrainable list of all GPUs with benchmarks (e.g. 3DMarks).

» Notebook Gaming List
Which game can be played with my graphics card.

Class 1
GeForce GTX 590
Radeon HD 7970
GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Radeon HD 7870
GeForce GTX 580
Radeon HD 6970
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 480
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Radeon HD 6870
Radeon HD 5850
Radeon HD 7770
Radeon HD 7770
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 5770
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Class 2
GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 4850
Class 3
Radeon HD 5670
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GT 430
Radeon HD 5570
GeForce GT 220
Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
Class 4
Class 5
Radeon HD 4350
GeForce G 107M *
Chrome9HD *
PowerVR SGX554MP4 *
Mali-T604 *
Class 6
PowerVR SGX543MP4 *
Adreno 320 *
PowerVR SGX543MP3 *
PowerVR SGX543MP2 *
PowerVR SGX545
PowerVR SGX544 *
Adreno 305 *
Adreno 225 *
Vivante GC4000 *
Mali-400 MP4 *
VideoCore-IV *
Adreno 220 *
Vivante GC1000+ Dual-Core
Mali-400 MP2 *
PowerVR SGX540 *
Adreno 205 *
Adreno 203 *
GC800 *
PowerVR SGX535
PowerVR SGX531
PowerVR SGX530
Adreno 200 *
Mali-200 *
unknown *

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > FAQ / Tips / Technics > Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards > AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2013-01-16)