Mobility Radeon HD 4870 vs Radeon R9 290X

When choosing between Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon R9 290X, it is worth examining the specifications of the models in detail. Do they meet the recommended requirements of modern games and software? Storage capacity, form factor, TDP, available ports, warranty and manufacturer support are all important. For example, the size of a PC case can limit the maximum thickness and length of the card. Often, instead of the factory overclocked card and RGB backlight, it is better to choose a reference model with a more efficient GPU. And make sure that your current power supply unit has the correct connection pins (using adapters is not recommended). This GPUs compare tool is meant to help you to choose the best graphics card for your build. Let's find out the difference between Mobility Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon R9 290X.

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 Radeon R9 290X
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 290X has 3 GB more memory, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 290X - in Desktops.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is build with Terascale 1 architecture, and Radeon R9 290X - with GCN.
  • Mobility Radeon HD 4870 is manufactured by 55 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 290X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 290X is 362 MHz higher, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 7−8 35−40
ultra / 1080p 4−5 24−27
QHD / 1440p 0−1 18−20
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 16−18 60−65
medium / 1080p 8−9 45−50
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 377% more, than Mobility Radeon HD 4870.

Full Specs

  Mobility Radeon HD 4870 Radeon R9 290X
Architecture Terascale 1 GCN
Code name M98-XT Hawaii XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 9 January 2009 24 October 2013
Pipelines 800 2816
Core clock speed 550 MHz
Boost Clock 947 MHz
Transistor count 956 million 6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology 55 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 22.00 176.0
Floating-point performance 880.0 gflops 5,632 gflops
Length 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 512 Bit
Memory clock speed 888 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 56.83 GB/s 320 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model 4.1 6.3
OpenGL 3.3 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 2.0
Vulkan N/A +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.76 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 623 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 25.75 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 350 Sol/s
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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