AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) vs AMD Radeon HD 7310

AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used for the Ryzen 5 APUs, which were launched in the end of 2017. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 8 CUs (= 512 of the 704 shaders) clocked at up to 1100 MHz (Ryzen 5 2500U). The performance depends on the configured TDP (12-25 W at launch), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

AMD's reference design GPU is sitting between the GeForce 940MX / Radeon Pro 450 and GeForce MX150 / Radeon Pro 555. It can handle smooth gameplay in simple titles like League of Legends (med), Dota 2 (low), Overwatch (low), CS:GO (med), and Quake Champions (high) in 720p up to 1080p according to AMD.

Thanks to the 14nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the graphics card can also be used for slim and light notebooks.

AMD Radeon HD 7310

The AMD Radeon HD 7310 (or perhaps also called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 7310) is an integrated graphics card in the 2nd generation Zacate netbook processor. It is based on the same graphics core as the Radeon HD 6310, the clock speed is identical as well. Furthermore, it features the UVD3 video processor.

The 3D performance of the HD 7310 is beneath a HD 4330 due to the missing dedicated graphics memory (shared memory only). Gaming performance is therefore similar to a Nvidia ION or Intel HD Graphics graphics card. In our tests, the almost identical 6310 was only able to run low end games like Fifa 11, Sims 3 and Star Craft 2 single player in lowest detail settings fluently. More demanding games like Risen or Call of Duty series were not playable. Detailed performance information can be found here.

The UVD3 video decoder allows the decoding of HD videos using the graphics card. It allows the parallel decoding of two MPEG2, H.264 and VC-1 streams and therefore compatible to BD-Live. Furthermore, the new UVD3 also supports DivX, Xvid and MPEG4 Part 2 decoding. Blu-Ray 3D via MCV (Multiview Video Coding) is theoretically supported by the UVD3 but wasn't available in the first laptops and platforms (no hardware accelleration and no HDMI 1.4 output).