Review and testing of video cards for laptops AMD Radeon R9 M370X: Test | Specs | CPU | Config

The video card is based on the GCN 1.0 architecture, it uses 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory with an effective frequency of 4500 MHz and a 128-bit bus width. The frequency of 640 unified shader processors is up to 800 MHz (unlike the R9 M375 – 1015 MHz with the same number of shader processors). The graphics chip is manufactured according to the norms of a 28-nanometer technological process, which implies a relatively low power consumption of the video card (within 30-40 W) and reasonable heat dissipation.

The performance of the R9 Radeon M370X should be comparable to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M, and most modern games will run at medium to high settings with a resolution of at least 1366×768 pixels.

Supported technologies

ATI PowerPlay Is a dynamic power management technology used in some graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by AMD (formerly ATI). The principle of operation is based on tracking the GPU load, determining the optimal parameters and correspondingly changing the clock frequency of the chip, memory and supply voltage, thereby optimizing the power consumption and heat dissipation of the video card. The technology in idle modes can disable unused GPU blocks.

ATI Eyefinity — a technology developed by the American company AMD that allows multiple displays to be connected together to a personal computer. ATI Eyefinity assumes connection from one to six displays inclusive to one graphics card. Desktop duplication and stretching modes are supported across multiple monitors, and a special new feature allows displays to be grouped into one large screen that can display a PC desktop or, for example, video, as well as windowed or full-screen 3D applications.

AMD HD3D — The technology is supported by an extended and open ecosystem that, when combined with specific AMD hardware and software technologies, enables the 3D viewing of many applications and processes on the PC.

AMD Enduro — Automatically disables AMD Radeon discrete graphics for lightweight applications and extends battery life.

AMD Zero Core — In a deep idle state, the new GPU consumes less than 5% of the power of full-fledged mode, disabling most of the functional blocks in this mode.

TrueAudio Is a built-in programmable audio engine in the AMD GPU, it provides guaranteed real-time processing of audio tasks, regardless of the installed CPU. To do this, several Tensilica HiFi EP Audio DSP DSP cores are integrated into the named AMD graphics processors, access to their capabilities is carried out using popular sound processing libraries, the developers of which can use the resources of the built-in audio engine using a special TrueAudio API. AMD has long and closely cooperated with many companies known for their developments in this area: game developers, developers of audio middleware, audio algorithms, etc., and several games with TrueAudio support have already been released.

PowerTune, designed for intelligent real-time power management. AMD PowerTune technology automatically overclocks and accelerates the system with the latest games. In addition, PowerTune also provides rich overclocking capabilities for the Tonga GPU. In the driver settings, the user can set several parameters, such as the target GPU temperature, the relative fan speed in the cooling device, as well as the maximum power consumption level, and the video card will do the rest by setting the maximum possible frequency and other parameters (GPU voltage, fan speed) in changed conditions.

API Mantle, a technology that helps make more efficient use of the hardware capabilities of AMD GPUs, as Mantle is not limited by the shortcomings of the available graphics APIs: OpenGL and DirectX. To do this, a thinner software shell is used between the game engine and the hardware resources of the GPU, similar to how it has been done for a long time on game consoles. The API was developed at AMD with the help of leading game developers from Dice, and Battlefield 4 was the first game to use Mantle, showing good performance gains from Direct3D to Mantle.

Specifications

Synthetic tests

• 3DMark – (Fire Strike Standard Graphics 1920×1080):2418
• 3DMark -(Fire Strike Standard Score 1920×1080):2290

Game testing

Dragon Age Inquisition. The resolution is 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (High), the average FPS was 17. When the resolution was increased to the level of 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Ultra, MSAA: 2x) averaged 15 FPS.

Battlefield Hardline. The resolution is 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Hihg, DX11, 2xMSAA), the average FPS was 27. When the resolution was increased to 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Ultra, DX 11, 4xMSAA) averaged 19 FPS.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. The resolution is 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (High / On (Cache Shadow Maps Off) AA: FX), the average FPS was 33. When the resolution was increased to 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Ultra, Extra / On (Cache Shadow Maps) Off), 2x Supersampling AA: 2x SM), the number of FPS averaged 30.