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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.

Radeon HD 6400M Series

Radeon HD 6490M 160 @ 0.7 GHz64 Bit @ 800 MHz
Radeon HD 6470M compare 160 @ 0.7 GHz64 Bit @ 800 MHz
Radeon HD 6450M compare 160 @ 0.6 GHz64 Bit @ 800 MHz
Radeon HD 6430M compare 160 @ 0.48 GHz64 Bit @ 800 MHz
CodenameSeymour XT
ArchitectureTerascale 2
Pipelines160 - unified
Core Speed700 / 750 / 800 MHz
Memory Speed800 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3/GDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory512 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology40 nm
Date of Announcement06.01.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/...

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 4498     avg: 5311     median: 5571 (8%)     max: 5602 Points
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
specvp11 sw-02 +
specvp11 proe-05 +
specvp11 maya-03 +
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
specvp11 ensight-04 +
specvp11 catia-03 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit)
min: 4957     avg: 6578     median: 6754 (5%)     max: 6828 points
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 9.37     avg: 21.2     median: 22.2 (8%)     max: 22.54 fps
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Anno 2070

Anno 2070

2011
low 1024x768
54.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
22.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Fifa 12

Fifa 12

2011
low 800x600
173.9  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
80.4  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
57.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
low 800x600
72.6 80.3 ~ 76 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
21.6 37.3 ~ 29 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
18.3 24.8 ~ 22 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 800x600
med. 1024x768
high 1360x768
32  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
16  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Fifa 11

Fifa 11

2010
high 1360x768
73  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 ~ 38 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
low 800x600
med. 1024x768
high 1360x768
ultra 1920x1080
12 12 ~ 12 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
med. 1360x768
high 1360x768
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 800x600
36 36 ~ 36 fps    + Compare
med. 1360x768
21 21 ~ 21 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
47.4 48.1 ~ 48 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
28.6 30.2 ~ 29 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
18.5 20.8 ~ 20 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Risen

Risen

2009
low 800x600
59 59 ~ 59 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
30 30 ~ 30 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
17.4 18 18 ~ 18 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
9 9 ~ 9 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5

2009
high 1360x768
32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 ~ 32 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 ~ 17 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Colin McRae: DIRT 2

Colin McRae: DIRT 2

2009
low 800x600
68  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
44  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
21.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Anno 1404

Anno 1404

2009
low 1024x768
142.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Sims 3

Sims 3

2009
med. 1024x768
47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 ~ 47 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 ~ 21 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto

GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto

2008
Trackmania Nations Forever

Trackmania Nations Forever

2008
low 640x480
high 1024x768
ultra 1920x1080
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.