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AMD Radeon HD 8730M

AMD Radeon HD 8730M

The AMD Radeon HD 8730M (sometimes known as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 8730) is a DirectX 11.1 graphics card for laptops. It is based on the Mars chip (28nm GCN architecture) with 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. The core is clocked at 650 MHz (700 MHz Boost) and can access a DDR3 VRAM (1000 MHz).

The performance of the Radeon HD 8730M is similar to the GeForce GT 640M LE. Current and demanding games (as of 2012/2013) like Far Cry 3 will run fluently in medium-low resolutions and detail settings.

The 384 shaders can be used with OpenCL 1.2 for general-purpose calculations (as 6 compute units). Compared to old TeraScale 2 chips, the GCN-based Mars architecture offers improved performance in this framework.

Features of the 8730M include video decoding via UVD3 for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly from the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are now compatible as well.

The 8700M series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the 8730M can directly support up to 2 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features of the 8700M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP limit. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.

The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.

The power consumption should be slightly below that of the old HD 7670M. As a result, the 8730M is suited for 13-inch notebooks or larger.

Radeon HD 8700M Series

Radeon HD 8790M compare 384 @ 0.85 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
Radeon HD 8770M compare 384 @ 0.78 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
Radeon HD 8550G + HD 8750M Dual Graphics compare 640 @ 0.72 GHz128 Bit @ 1800 MHz
Radeon HD 8750M compare 384 @ 0.62 - 0.78 GHz128 Bit @ 2000 - 4000 MHz
Radeon HD 8730M 384 @ 0.65 GHz128 Bit @ 2000 MHz
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed650 MHz
Memory Speed2000 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11.1, Shader 5.0
Transistor Count900 Million
technology28 nm
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement16.11.2012

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
3.1 pt (3%)
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 8604     avg: 8620     median: 8620 (12%)     max: 8636 Points
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
- 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.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

2012
low 1024x768
48  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
37.2  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
18  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
5.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
med. 1366x768
18.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
16.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
6.8  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
15  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
14  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
12  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
72  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
47.8  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
25  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
17.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
38.9  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
34.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
21.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
54  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
33  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
26  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
69.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
55.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
49.6  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
27  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Fifa 13

Fifa 13

2012
low 1024x768
225  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
154  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
128  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F1 2012

F1 2012

2012
low 1024x768
32  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
29  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
25  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
51.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
40.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
30.5  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
17.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
51.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
22.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
9.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
142.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
105.2  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
83.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
48.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
med. 1366x768
48.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
27.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
49  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
28  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
22  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
37  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
35  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
55.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
37.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
33  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
14.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
78  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
56  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
51  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.