AMD Radeon R8 M365DX vs AMD Radeon R8 M445DX

AMD Radeon R8 M365DX

The AMD Radeon R8 M365DX (Dual Graphics) is a hybrid Crossfire combination of the integrated Radeon R6 (e.g Carrizo A10-8700) and a dedicated Radeon R7 M360. Both cards work in AFR mode (alternate frame rendering) where each card renders alternating frames. Therefore, micro-stuttering can occur due to the different frame times between two frames.

Both cards offer 384 shader cores based on the GCN architecture. Depending on the game and its drivers, performance may be better than the single M360 (e.g. +47% in Crysis 3) or even worse (e.g. -37% in Dirt Rally). On average, performance is comparable to a Nvidia GeForce 920M and is therefore suitable for modern 3D gaming on 720p with low detail settings.

The Dual Graphics solution will draw more power than a single GPU and may not be as efficient as a single card solution.

AMD Radeon R8 M445DX

The AMD Radeon R8 M445DX is a Dual Graphics combination of the integrated Radeon R5 (Bristol Ridge, e.g. in the A10-9600P) and a dedicated Radeon R7 M440 graphics card. It was introduced in mid 2016 for entry level multimedia laptops. The R8 M445DX runs both cards in hybrid crossfire mode and renders games in AFR mode (alternate frame rendering) that renders a frame alternately on each card. Therefore, the Dual Graphics needs driver profiles for each DX 11 game to work properly and often suffers from micro stuttering.

The Radeon R6 features 384, the Radeon R7 M440 320 shader cores, both based on the GCN architecture. Technical details on each card and benchmarks can be found on their GPU pages.

In our gaming tests, the performance of the Dual Graphics combination depends on the driver support. Except 3DMark benchmarks however, we saw nearly no game that could profit from the Crossfire combination with the launch drivers. Currently, buyers should only see the R8 M445DX as a single R7 M440.

In idle the dedicated GPU is shut down to save power and only the integrated R5 is running. Running together, the power consumption of both cards are combined (5-10 + 20-25 Watt).