The AMD Radeon R7 M270 is a (lower) mid-range DirectX 12 graphics card for laptops. Just like the older Radeon HD 8750M and Radeon R7 M265, it is based on the Mars chip (28nm GCN architecture) with 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs. The core is clocked at up to 825 MHz and can access up to 4 GB of DDR3 memory (900 - 1000 MHz, 128 bit).
Performance
The performance of the Radeon R7 M270 is similar to the Nvidia GeForce 830M and GeForce GT 740M. Current and demanding games of 2014/2015 will run fluently only in low resolutions and detail settings. In older games, however, higher quality settings will be possible.
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
Features of the R7 M270 include video decoding for MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly by the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are compatible as well.
The R7 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 M270 can directly support multiple monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.
Other features 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 allows audio output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.
Power consumption
The power consumption should be similar to the old Radeon HD 8750M or the Nvidia GeForce GT 730M (30 W or lower). As a result, the R7 M270 is best suited for 13-inch notebooks or larger.
Radeon R7 M200 Series
| ||||||||||||||||
| Codename | Opal XT / Mars | |||||||||||||||
| Architecture | GCN | |||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 384 - unified | |||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 825 MHz | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Speed | 1800 - 2000 MHz | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Type | DDR3 | |||||||||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | |||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | |||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 12 (FL 11_1), Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.3 | |||||||||||||||
| Transistor Count | 1 Billion | |||||||||||||||
| technology | 28 nm | |||||||||||||||
| Features | Mantle, PCIe 3.0, Zero Core, PowerTune | |||||||||||||||
| Notebook Size | medium sized | |||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 07.01.2014 | |||||||||||||||
- Average benchmark valuesThe 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.
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA V | 51.1 | 43.5 | 11.8 | 8.1 | ||
| Battlefield Hardline | 47 | 34 | 15 | 9 | ||
| Evolve | 31 | 23 | 13 | 11 | ||
| Dragon Age: Inquisition | 38 | 31 | 18 | 12 | ||
| Far Cry 4 | 38.4 | 27.8 | 13.1 | 10.3 | ||
| F1 2014 | 93 | 62 | 36 | 23 | ||
| The Evil Within | 26.8 | 20.1 | 10.1 | |||
| Ryse: Son of Rome | 32.6 | 20.9 | 9.9 | 9.3 | ||
| Alien: Isolation | 45.2 | 31 | 17 | 13.9 | ||
| Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor | 35 | 22 | 13 | 10 | ||
| Risen 3: Titan Lords | 51 | 31 | 14 | 11 | ||
| GRID: Autosport | 136 | 53 | 25 | 14 | ||
| Thief | 28 | 19 | 16 | 9 | ||
| X-Plane 10.25 | 59.6 | 31.5 | 13.4 | 5.1 | ||
| Batman: Arkham Origins | 99 | 47 | 25 | 11 | ||
| Total War: Rome II | 63.4 | 47.2 | 38.3 | 7.3 | ||
| StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm | 208 | 72 | 41.6 | 15.6 | ||
| Tomb Raider | 78 | 41 | 29 | 14 | ||
| Hitman: Absolution | 40 | 33 | 17 | 8 | ||
| Diablo III | 94.5 | 62.1 | 51 | 31.4 | ||
| Anno 2070 | 91.3 | 46.1 | 28.8 | 14 | ||
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 67.1 | 43.3 | 31.6 | 19.1 | ||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 2 11 7 2 | 6 13 3 | 17 5 | 20 1 | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
Dell Inspiron 15-5548: Intel Core i7-5500U, 15.60", 2.2 kg
External Review » Dell Inspiron 15-5548
Dell Inspiron 15-7548: Intel Core i7-5500U, 15.60", 2.1 kg
External Review » Dell Inspiron 15-7548
» Comparison of GPUs
Detailed list of all laptop GPUs sorted by class and performance.
» Benchmark List
Sort and restrict laptop GPUs based on performance in synthetic benchmarks.
» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.
* Approximate position of the graphics adapter
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
