AMD Radeon 890M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

AMD Radeon 890M

The Radeon 890M is the most powerful AMD iGPU, as of mid 2024. It features 16 RDNA 3.5 architecture CUs (1024 unified shaders) running at up to 2,900 MHz. Ray tracing, AI image generation and other modern features are all supported here, as are the most popular video codecs including first and foremost AVC, HEVC, VP9 and AV1. The latest addition to that list, the VVC codec, is not HW-supported unlike it is with Intel Lunar Lake chips.

The AMD iGPU is capable of driving four SUHD 4320p60 monitors simultaneously. It also supports Miracast and FreeSync. RDNA 3.5-based iGPUs are projected to be fully supported by AMD until some time in 2027.

Performance

Performance-wise, the graphics adapter can be as slow as the Arc 8 or as fast as the RTX 2050 Laptop depending on the benchmark or game. On average, the 890M finds itself very close to the GTX 1650 Laptop making it possible to play 2024 AAA games at 1080p with most settings set to Low. Baldur's Gate 3 is playable on medium settings, as are several other 2023 games.

Power consumption

Strix Point chips are a single-die design, meaning the iGPU is built with the same TSMC N4P process as the CPU cores for very decent, as of mid 2024, power efficiency.

The 890M delivers as much performance as an entry-level desktop graphics card while consuming just 10 to 20 Watts.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU (codename GN21-X2) is a mid-range laptop GPU. It is based on the AD107 chip and uses the Ada Lovelace architecture. The RTX 4050 Laptop offers 2560 shaders and uses 6 GB GDDR6 dedicated graphics memory with a clock speed of 16 Gbps (effective) and a 96 Bit memory bus. The TGP (Total Graphics Power) can be configured between 35 and 115 Watt (+ 10-25 Watt Dynamic Boost from the CPU) leading to different performance levels. The boost clock depends on the TGP settings and ranges from 1605 MHz (35 Watt) to 2370 MHz (115 Watt). The performance therefore is also highly depending on the laptop and TDP settings.

In our benchmarks, the RTX 4050 stays slightly behind the older mobile RTX 3060 but is clearly faster than the mobile RTX 3050 Ti. Therefore, it is best suited for 1920x1080 gaming at high to ultra settings depending on the game (see benchmarks below).

The RTX 4050 offers 80 tensor cores and therefore supports DLSS 3 including frame generation that can have a big impact in supported games. The raytracing cores however will see less usage, as the RTX 4050 does not offer enough performance for high detail settings and raytracing in demanding games.

The AD107 chip is manufactured on 5nm at TSMC (4N process).