GeForce GTX 590 vs Mobility Radeon HD 4870

In this comparison between GeForce GTX 590 and Mobility Radeon HD 4870 you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people GeForce GTX 590 will be the best choice, for others Mobility Radeon HD 4870 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Mobility Radeon HD 4870 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 Mobility Radeon HD 4870 here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Power consumption (TDP) 365 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors Two 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU) 1 GB
Display Connectors 3x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Both video cards are using PCIe 2.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GTX 590 has 3071 GB more memory, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is used in Desktops, and Mobility Radeon HD 4870 - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is build with Fermi architecture, and Mobility Radeon HD 4870 - with Terascale 1.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 590 is 665 MHz higher, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Mobility Radeon HD 4870 - by 55 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of GeForce GTX 590 is 819 MHz higher, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 7−8
ultra / 1080p 10−11 4−5
QHD / 1440p 4−5 0−1
low / 720p 35−40 16−18
medium / 1080p 21−24 8−9
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 590 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 133% more, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Mobility Radeon HD 4870
Architecture Fermi Terascale 1
Code name GF110 M98-XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 24 March 2011 9 January 2009
Pipelines 1024 800
Core clock speed 1215 MHz 550 MHz
Transistor count 3,000 million 956 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 55 nm
Texture fill rate 77.7 billion/sec 22.00
Floating-point performance 2x 1,244.2 gflops 880.0 gflops
Length 11" (280 mm) (27.9 cm)
Memory bus width 768-bit (384-bit per GPU) 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1707 MHz 888 MHz
Memory bandwidth 327.7 GB/s 56.83 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model 5.1 4.1
OpenGL 4.2 3.3
OpenCL 1.1 1.1
Vulkan N/A N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1024
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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