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AMD Radeon HD 6490M

AMD Radeon HD 6490M

The AMD Radeon HD 6490M (sometimes also still called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6490) is a laptop graphics card for entry level to middle class notebooks. It is based on the Seymore-XT chip and therefore features the UVD 3 video decoder. Compared to the slower HD 6470M, the 6490M offers optional fast GDDR5 graphics memory. The GDDR5 versions are clocked with 700 ord 750MHz, the DDR3 version features a higher 800MHz core clock, but should be slower due to the slower graphics memory.

The 120 Stream processors should be still based on the "old" 5D architecture similar to the 5000 series. Therefore, the number of shaders is not comparable to the 1D cores of current Nvidia GPUs. The Tessellation performance should be improved (like the desktop 6800 series) with the new cards. The Stream processors can be used with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL. With the later two the cores can also be used for general computations like transcoding videos.

The performance  of the higher clocked GDDR5 version is about on a level of the Mobility Radeon HD 550v / GeForce GT 325M. Therefore, the card is positioned in the lower middle class and allows to play current games in medium detail and resolution settings. In our tests with a 15" MBP modern games like Starcraft 2 or Mafia 2 reached about 30fps in medium detail settings with a resolution of 1024x768. Less demanding and older games like Trackmania also ran in high details and resolution settings. Detailed benchmark results can be seen at the bottom of this page.

The new UVD3 video decoder supports the decoding of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos on the graphics card.

Furthermore, the HD 6400M series integrates a HD audio controller to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g. for Blu-Ray videos).

The AMD HD3D Technology offers support for Blu-Ray 3D and 3D displays (integrated and external). However, the solution is not as mature as Nvidias 3D Vision.

Thanks to Eyefinity the graphics chip is able to theoretically drive up to 4 monitors simultaneously. However, this only works if the laptop features enough DisplayPort outputs.

The power consumption of the chip should be similar to the Mobility Radeon HD 5470 and therefore suited for 13" laptops and up.

ManufacturerAMD
Radeon HD 6400M Series

Radeon HD 6490M 160@700 / 750 / 800MHz

Radeon HD 6470M 160@700 / 750MHz

Radeon HD 6450M 160@600MHz

Radeon HD 6430M 160@480MHz

CodenameSeymour XT
ArchitectureTerascale 2
Pipelines160 - unified
Core Speed *700 / 750 / 800 MHz
Shader Speed *700 / 750 / 800 MHz
Memory Speed *800 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3/GDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory512 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology40 nm
Date of Announcement06.01.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 669     avg: 681.8 (7%)     max: 696 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 592     avg: 598.7 (5%)     max: 603 points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 2471     avg: 2511.3 (7%)     max: 2552 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 1984     avg: 2017.8 (5%)     max: 2086 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 4498     avg: 5310.5 (18%)     max: 5602 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 8996     avg: 9512.3 (26%)     max: 9865 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 14458     avg: 14712 (10%)     max: 14966 Points
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 33338     avg: 33338 (54%)     max: 33338 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 6.7     avg: 6.7 (4%)     max: 6.7 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 5156     avg: 5535.3 (21%)     max: 6033 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 5.06     avg: 5.1 (7%)     max: 5.06 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 6.19     avg: 6.2 (10%)     max: 6.19 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 20.86     avg: 20.9 (26%)     max: 20.86 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 9.27     avg: 9.3 (8%)     max: 9.27 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 1.9     avg: 1.9 (11%)     max: 1.9 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 12.63     avg: 12.6 (20%)     max: 12.63 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 3.74     avg: 3.7 (6%)     max: 3.74 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 4.34     avg: 4.3 (7%)     max: 4.34 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 9.37     avg: 21.2 (24%)     max: 22.54 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 4957     avg: 6578.1 (61%)     max: 6828 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 5.9     avg: 6.4 (81%)     max: 6.6 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.2     avg: 6.5 (82%)     max: 6.6 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.

Anno 2070
Anno 2070 (2011)
low:
54.4  fps      Compare
med.:
22.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Fifa 12
Fifa 12 (2011)
low:
173.9  fps      Compare
med.:
80.4  fps      Compare
high:
57.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F1 2011 (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings med.. - more...
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 (2011)
low:
72.6 80.3 ~ 76 fps      Compare
med.:
21.6 37.3 ~ 29 fps      Compare
high:
18.3 24.8 ~ 22 fps      Compare
ultra:
9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Call of Duty: Black Ops
low:
80  fps      Compare
med.:
45  fps      Compare
high:
32  fps      Compare
ultra:
16  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Fifa 11
Fifa 11 (2010)
high:
73  fps      Compare
ultra:
38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 ~ 38 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Civilization 5 (2010): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Mafia 2
Mafia 2 (2010)
low:
39.1  fps      Compare
med.:
30.4  fps      Compare
high:
25.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
12 12 ~ 12 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
StarCraft 2
StarCraft 2 (2010)
low:
194.8  fps      Compare
med.:
33.7  fps      Compare
high:
22.1  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Just Cause 2 (2010): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 (2010)
low:
36 36 ~ 36 fps      Compare
med.:
21 21 ~ 21 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings low. - more...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
low:
47.4 48.1 ~ 48 fps      Compare
med.:
28.6 30.2 ~ 29 fps      Compare
high:
18.5 20.8 ~ 20 fps      Compare
ultra:
13.7  fps      Compare