Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs Quadro 500M

When comparing Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Quadro 500M, we look primarily at benchmarks and game tests. But it is not only about the numbers. Often you can find third-party models with higher clock speeds, better cooling, or a customizable RGB lighting. Not all of them will have all the features you need. Another thing to consider is the port selection. Most graphics cards have at least one DisplayPort and HDMI interface, but some monitors require DVI. Before you buy, check the TDP of the graphics card - this characteristic will help you estimate the consumption of the graphics card. You may even have to upgrade your PSU to meet its requirements. An important factor when choosing between Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Quadro 500M is the price. Does the additional cost justify the performance hit? Our comparison should help you make the right decision.

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

  Mobility Radeon HD 4870 Quadro 500M
Power consumption (TDP) 35 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-A (3.0)
Memory type GDDR5 DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Quadro 500M uses MXM-A (3.0) interface.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Quadro 500M have maximum RAM of 1 GB.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is used in Laptops, and Quadro 500M - in Desktops.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is build with Terascale 1 architecture, and Quadro 500M - with Fermi.
  • Core clock speed of Quadro 500M is 150 MHz higher, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is manufactured by 55 nm process technology, and Quadro 500M - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Quadro 500M is 912 MHz higher, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 7−8 0−1
ultra / 1080p 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 16−18 1−2
medium / 1080p 8−9 0−1
The average gaming FPS of Mobility Radeon HD 4870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 1600% more, than Quadro 500M.

Full Specs

  Mobility Radeon HD 4870 Quadro 500M
Architecture Terascale 1 Fermi
Code name M98-XT GF108
Type Laptop Workstation
Release date 9 January 2009 22 February 2011
Pipelines 800 96
Core clock speed 550 MHz 700 MHz
Transistor count 956 million 585 million
Manufacturing process technology 55 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 22.00 11.20
Floating-point performance 880.0 gflops 268.8 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 888 MHz 1800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 56.83 GB/s 28.8 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 10.1 (10_1) 12 (11_0)
Shader Model 4.1 5.1
OpenGL 3.3 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.1
Vulkan N/A N/A
CUDA 2.1
Laptop size large
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