AMD Radeon HD 8970M vs AMD Radeon R9 M290X vs AMD Radeon R9 M265X

AMD Radeon HD 8970M

The AMD Radeon HD 8970M is a 28nm DirectX 11 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for large laptops, the advanced card is positioned near the top of the high-end category as of 2013. Its performance and feature set are similar to the HD 7970M, as the 8970M shares the same core and only features a higher maximum core clock.

The design of the Radeon 8900M series has its roots to the Pitcairn chip as found on the desktop Radeon HD 7870. The 8970M in particular is similar to its desktop Radeon HD 7870 counterpart with 1280 1D shader cores and 80 texture units, but has a core clock of only 900 MHz (boost) versus the 1000 MHz clock of the HD 7870. Compared to the HD 7970M, the 8970M shares the same base clock rate but with a 50 MHz higher Turbo clock for a 6% increase (1.01 TFLOPS vs. 1.07 TFLOPS) in raw SP calculations. As a result, general performance of the HD 8970M is somewhere between the 7850 and 7870 desktop Radeon cards.

When compared to mobile Nvidia GPUs, the HD 8970M performs significantly faster than the GeForce GTX 675M and slightly above the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M. Therefore, almost all demanding games of 2013 will run fluently on very high details and 1080p resolution.

Features of the 8970M include the new UVD3 video decoder for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash, Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos directly from the AMD GPU.

The 8900M 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 8970M can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features of the 8900M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off. Power Gating, however, is not supported according to AMD. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP range. 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.

Power consumption of the 8970M is in the same ballpark as the GeForce GTX 680M. The subsequently large heat output suits the 8970M as an option only for large laptops or DTRs (desktop replacements) equipped with relatively powerful cooling solutions.

AMD Radeon R9 M290X

The AMD Radeon R9 M290X is a 28nm DirectX 12 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for large laptops, the advanced card is positioned near the top of the high-end category as of Q1/2014. Its performance and feature set are identical to the HD 8970M, as the M290X shares the same core and features the same clock rates.

The design of the Radeon R9 M290 series has its roots to the Pitcairn chip as found on the desktop Radeon HD 7870. The M290X in particular is similar to its desktop Radeon HD 7870 counterpart with 1280 1D shader cores and 80 texture units, but has a core clock of only 900 MHz (boost) versus the 1000 MHz clock of the HD 7870. Compared to the HD 7970M, the M290X shares the same base clock rate but with a 50 MHz higher Turbo clock for a 6% increase (1.01 TFLOPS vs. 1.07 TFLOPS) in raw SP calculations. As a result, general performance of the M290X is somewhere between the 7850 and 7870 desktop Radeon cards.

As mentioned before, the M290X is just a rebrand of the HD 8970M with identical performance. When compared to mobile Nvidia GPUs, the M290X performs a bit below the GeForce GTX 780M and slightly above the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M. Therefore, almost all demanding games of 2013 will run fluently on very high details and 1080p resolution.

Features of the M290X include the new UVD3 video decoder for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash, Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos directly from the AMD GPU.

The M290 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 M290X can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features of the M290 series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off. Power Gating, however, is not supported according to AMD. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP range. 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.

Power consumption of the M290X is in the same ballpark as the GeForce GTX 780M. The subsequently large heat output suits the GPU as an option only for large laptops or DTRs (desktop replacements) equipped with relatively powerful cooling solutions.

AMD Radeon R9 M265X

The 28 nm AMD Radeon R9 M265X is an mid-range notebook graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. It was introduced in Spring of 2014 and supports up to DirectX 12 (FL 11_1). The underlying "Cape Verde" GPU features 640 unified shaders, a core clock of 625 MHz and a 128-Bit memory interface with 2 or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory at 1000 MHz (4000 MHz effective).

Architecture

The "Cape Verde" GPU codename is based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture and is processed in a 28 nm lithography. The GCN architecture features 10 processing units for a total of 640 stream processors. In addition, the AMD Radeon R9 M265X sports 40 texture units, 64 Z/Stencil ROP units, 16 color ROP units and a 512 KB L2 read/write cache.

The AMD Radeon R9 M265X is compatible with the lastest PCIe  3.0 Standard.

Performance

Depending on the clock rate (and maybe benefits from Boost), the AMD Radeon M265X ranks in the mid-range of mobile graphics cards as of mid 2014. Performance is sligthly above a GeForce 840M and a GeForce 940M. As a result, this AMD GPU can run current titles smoothly up to 900p with medium to high settings. Graphical settings will have to be reduced significantly when playing very demanding titles like Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3.

Features

A well-known feature of the AMD Radeon R9 M265X includes the “Eyefinity“ technology, which allows the user to connect up to 6 displays simultaneously. For notebooks, however, this feature is almost always limited by the number of available display ports.

The mid-range GPU also supports the “Enduro” technology for power efficiency, which is the counterpart to Nvidia's “Optimus”. While idle or in low load scenarios (Office, Internet, etc.), the system will deactivate the dGPU in favor of the more low-power integrated GPU.

The M265X also features the “Mantle” graphics API for gamers. This programming interface has been developed by the manufacturer as an alternative to Direct3D or OpenGL. Example titles with Mantle support include Battlefield 4, Thief, and The Sims 4 with more to come in the future.

With “App Acceleration”, AMD has also equipped the Radeon R9 M265X with technology for improving video quality and increasing application performance. However, support for OpenCL, DirectCompute, or DirectX video acceleration (DXVA) is required in order to use all described functions.

Power Consumption

With a TDP of about 35 to 40 Watt, the power consumption of the AMD Radeon R9 M265X ranges between the 840M (about 30 Watt) and the GTX 850M (~40 to 45 Watt). Thus, the graphics card is best suitable for 15-inch notebooks. Under low loads, automatic underclocking can save energy. When idle, the Enduro software can completely deactivate the card for additional power savings.