Maxwell GPU Surface Book vs Radeon HD 4870 X2

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon HD 4870 X2, 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 Maxwell GPU Surface Book stacks up against Radeon HD 4870 X2, check out specs charts below.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Maxwell GPU Surface Book 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 Maxwell GPU Surface Book here:

Main Specs

  Maxwell GPU Surface Book Radeon HD 4870 X2
Power consumption (TDP) 286 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video
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  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon HD 4870 X2 have maximum RAM of 1 GB.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 4870 X2 - in Desktops.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 4870 X2 - with TeraScale.
  • Core clock speed of Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 254 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 4870 X2 - by 55 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 1412 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 3−4
ultra / 1080p 5−6 1−2
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 20−22 14−16
medium / 1080p 10−12 6−7
The average gaming FPS of Maxwell GPU Surface Book in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 83% more, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Full Specs

  Maxwell GPU Surface Book Radeon HD 4870 X2
Architecture Maxwell TeraScale
Code name Surface Book R700
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 October 2015 12 August 2008
Pipelines 384 800
Core clock speed 954 MHz 700 MHz
Boost Clock 993 MHz
Transistor count 956 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 55 nm
Texture fill rate 28.00
Floating-point performance 2x 1,120.0 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 5012 MHz 3600 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0 10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model 4.1
OpenGL 3.3
OpenCL 1.1
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
Optimus +
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