Maxwell GPU Surface Book vs Radeon HD 6790

In this comparison between Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon HD 6790 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 Maxwell GPU Surface Book will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 6790 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

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 6790
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon HD 6790 have maximum RAM of 1 GB.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 6790 - in Desktops.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 6790 - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 114 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6790.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 6790 - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 3962 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6790.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 7−8
ultra / 1080p 5−6 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 20−22 18−20
medium / 1080p 10−12 9−10
The average gaming FPS of Maxwell GPU Surface Book in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 10% more, than Radeon HD 6790.

Full Specs

  Maxwell GPU Surface Book Radeon HD 6790
Architecture Maxwell Terascale 2
Code name Surface Book Barts
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 October 2015 4 April 2011
Pipelines 384 800
Core clock speed 954 MHz 840 MHz
Boost Clock 993 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 33.60
Floating-point performance 1,344.0 gflops
Length 198 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 5012 MHz 1050 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.4
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 122 Mh/s
Optimus +
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