GeForce GTX 965M vs Radeon HD 4870

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 4870, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 965M stacks up against Radeon HD 4870, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 965M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GTX 965M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with GeForce GTX 965M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 965M Radeon HD 4870
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x S-Video
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  • GeForce GTX 965M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 4870 uses PCIe 2.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 965M has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 4870.
  • GeForce GTX 965M is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 4870 - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 965M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 4870 - with TeraScale.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 965M is 194 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 4870.
  • GeForce GTX 965M is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 4870 - by 55 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 4870 is 1100 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 965M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 20−22 3−4
ultra / 1080p 12−14 1−2
QHD / 1440p 6−7 0−1
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 35−40 14−16
medium / 1080p 24−27 6−7
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 965M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 300% more, than Radeon HD 4870.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 965M Radeon HD 4870
Architecture Maxwell TeraScale
Code name N16E-GS, N16E-GR RV770
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 5 January 2015 25 June 2008
Pipelines 1024 800
Core clock speed 944 MHz 750 MHz
Boost Clock 950 / 1151 MHz
Transistor count 2,940 million 956 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 55 nm
Texture fill rate 73.60 30.00
Floating-point performance 2,355 gflops 1,200.0 gflops
Length 250 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2500 MHz 3600 MHz
Memory bandwidth 80 GB/s 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
G-SYNC support +
DirectX 12 (12_1) 10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model 6.4 4.1
OpenGL 4.5 3.3
OpenCL 1.1 1.1
Vulkan 1.1 N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1024
Bus support PCI Express 3.0
SLI options +
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 226 Mh/s
Laptop size large
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
GameStream +
GeForce ShadowPlay +
GPU Boost 2.0
GameWorks +
BatteryBoost +
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