AMD Radeon R7 M440 vs AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri) vs AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri)

AMD Radeon R7 M440

The AMD Radeon R7 M440 is a entry level dedicated graphics card for laptops introduced in mid 2016. The technical details are the same as the previous Radeon R9 M340. Therefore it offers 320 shader cores clocked at 1,120 MHz and 2 GB DDR3 graphics memory at 1000 MHz with a 64 Bit interface. The chip is produced in 28 nm and not the new 14 nm process as the Polaris RX 400M series cards.

The gaming performance is comparable to the Radeon R7 M340 (as it has the same specs) or an Nvidia GeForce 920M. Therefore, demanding games of 2015 and 2016 may only be playable in the lowest detail settings and low resolutions.

AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri)

The AMD Radeon R7 (Kaveri) is an integrated DirectX 12 graphics card found on a number of AMD Kaveri APUs. Depending on the APU model, the GPU can offer all 512 GCN shaders and 8 compute cores, such as on the FX-7600P. Alternatively, other APUs may only feature 384 shaders and 6 compute cores, such as on the FX-7500. Additionally, the maximum core clock and memory speeds of the GPU depend on the overarching APU: While the ULV models are limited to DDR3-1600, the standard voltage models can support up to DDR3-2133.

Architecture and Features

Thanks to the new GCN 1.1 architecture, the Kaveri GPUs are significantly more efficient with higher performance compared to its VLIW-based predecessors Richland and Trinity. The graphics card can now handle both DirectX 12 (FL 12_0) and the AMD Mantle API. The GPU is also able to accelerate various applications like Adobe Photoshop by utilizing OpenCL.

The revised video engine of Kaveri includes UVD 4.2 (Unified Video Decoder) and VCE 2.0 (Video Codec Engine). H.264 codec support has been slightly improved in several areas. However, H.265 is still not fully supported in hardware.

Performance

Due to significant differences in shader count, core clock speed, and memory support between various Radeon R7 models, the performance of the Radeon R7 can vary greatly between different APUs. While the fastest GPU version in the FX-7600P can compete with a dedicated GeForce GT 740M, the slower version in the FX-7500 only performs at the level of a GeForce GT 720M or HD Graphics 5500. In some cases, the relatively weak CPU may limit the framerates.

Accordingly, games of 2014 can be played fluently in low to medium settings at 1024 x 768 or 1366 x 768 pixels.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the entire Kaveri APU is rated at 19 Watts and 35 Watts for ULV and standard voltage models, respectively. Thus, the 28 nm chip is suited for smaller or medium sized (sub-)notebooks.

AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri)

The AMD Radeon R5 (Kaveri) is an integrated DirectX 12 graphics card found on a number of AMD Kaveri APUs. The GPU offers 256 shaders and 4 compute cores (A8 Pro-7150B: 384 shaders / 6 compute cores) and can be found, for example, in the A8-7200P. The maximum core clock and memory speeds of the GPU depend on the overarching APU: While the ULV models are limited to DDR3-1600, the standard voltage models can support up to DDR3-1866.

Architecture and Features

Thanks to the new GCN 1.1 architecture, the Kaveri GPUs are significantly more efficient with higher performance compared to its VLIW-based predecessors Richland and Trinity. The graphics card can now handle both DirectX 12 (FL 12_0) and the AMD Mantle API. The GPU is also able to accelerate various applications like Adobe Photoshop by utilizing OpenCL.

The revised video engine of Kaveri includes UVD 4.2 (Unified Video Decoder) and VCE 2.0 (Video Codec Engine). H.264 codec support has been slightly improved in several areas. However, H.265 is still not fully supported in hardware.

Performance

Due to significant differences in core clock speed and memory support between various Radeon R5 models, the performance can vary greatly between different APUs. While the fastest GPU version in the A8 Pro-7150B can compete with a dedicated GeForce GT 720M, the slower version in the A8-7100 only performs at the level of a GeForce 710M. Accordingly, games of 2014 can be played fluently only in low settings at 1024 x 768 or 1366 x 768 pixels.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the entire Kaveri APU is rated at 19 Watts and 35 Watts for ULV and standard voltage models, respectively. Thus, the 28 nm chip is suited for smaller or medium sized (sub-)notebooks.