GPU Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data for these two GPUs comes from different test suites, so a direct apples-to-apples comparison requires care. The NVIDIA GeForce 820A has a single Geekbench OpenCL score of 2983, placing it at the 19th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon 8040S, meanwhile, offers a broader set of PassMark scores, with its overall average benchmark score of 2440 placing it at the 17th percentile. In terms of percentile ranking, the two are nearly adjacent, a 2-point gap, but that hides the real story of their respective performance profiles.

Looking at the 820A's closest rivals, it sits within 2.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M (2967), the GTX 750 Ti (2953), the Quadro P600 (2923), and even the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB (2913). That last comparison is striking: the 820A's OpenCL score of 2983 actually edges out the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB by 2.4% in this specific test. However, this is a case where the benchmark tells only part of the story, the 820A is a 15 W integrated part from 2014, while the RTX 4060 Ti is a modern discrete card with far more capable hardware in every other respect.

The 8040S, on the other hand, delivers its strongest showing in the PassMark G3D test, scoring 10578. This is the headline number for AMD's part. Its compute-focused PassMark GPU compute score of 5138 is also substantial. But the DirectX-specific scores are surprisingly low: 134 in DirectX 9, 80 in DirectX 11, 48 in DirectX 10, and 47 in DirectX 12. These results suggest the 8040S's architecture is heavily optimized for modern workloads, not legacy API paths. The G2D score of 1052 indicates solid 2D performance.

When comparing the two directly, the 8040S's G3D score of 10578 versus the 820A's single OpenCL score of 2983 suggests a massive gap in raw 3D throughput, roughly 3.5x. But the 8040S's average benchmark score of 2440 is dragged down by those low DirectX results, making its overall percentile (17th) nearly identical to the 820A's (19th). This is a classic case where averaging across different test suites obscures the real-world performance delta.

The nearestRivals data for the 8040S reinforces this oddity: it sits within 1.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce 710M (2433), the Intel HD Graphics 610 (2425), and the GT 710M (2422), and it trails the AMD Radeon RX 7400 (2467) by 1.1%. Those are all low-end or integrated parts from a much older generation. Yet the 8040S's G3D score of 10578 is in a completely different league from any of those rivals. The average score is misleading because the DirectX 9/10/11/12 PassMark results are anomalously low for such a modern GPU.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 820A has an average benchmark score of 2983, compared to the AMD Radeon 8040S's average of 2440. That puts the 820A about 22% higher on this specific metric, despite the 8040S having vastly superior raw specifications.

Q: Why is the 8040S's average score so low when its G3D score is over 10,000?

A: The 8040S's average of 2440 is pulled down by its PassMark DirectX scores: 48 in DirectX 10, 80 in DirectX 11, 47 in DirectX 12, and 134 in DirectX 9. These legacy API tests score very low, while the G3D score of 10578 and GPU compute score of 5138 are much higher. The average masks the bimodal distribution.

Q: How does the 820A compare to the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the 820A scores 2983 versus the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB's 2913, giving the 820A a 2.4% edge in that single benchmark. This does not reflect overall performance, the RTX 4060 Ti is a far more capable GPU, but it does show the 820A holds its own in this specific OpenCL workload.

Q: What is the 8040S's strongest benchmark result?

A: The PassMark G3D score of 10578 is the standout. Its GPU compute score of 5138 is also strong. The DirectX 11 score of 80 is its weakest among the DirectX tests, with DirectX 12 at 47 and DirectX 10 at 48.

Q: Which GPU has the better percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The 820A ranks at the 19th percentile, while the 8040S ranks at the 17th percentile. Despite the 8040S's far higher raw specifications and G3D score, its average benchmark score places it slightly lower in the overall distribution.

Q: What does the 8040S's nearestRivals data show?

A: The 8040S's average score of 2440 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 710M (2433, 0.3% behind), the Intel HD Graphics 610 (2425, 0.6% behind), and the GT 710M (2422, 0.7% behind). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 7400 (2467) by 1.1%. These are all older, low-end parts, which makes the 8040S's low average score particularly notable given its modern architecture.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different eras and design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce 820A is built on the GF117 chip using the Fermi 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 585 million transistors into a 116 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 5.0 million per square millimeter. The 8040S, by contrast, uses the Strix Halo chip with the RDNA 3.5 architecture, fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its die size is 308 mm², though transistor count is listed as unknown. The process node advantage is enormous, 28 nm versus 4 nm, which explains the 8040S's ability to pack far more compute into a similar power envelope.

The core configurations differ dramatically. The 820A has 96 shading units, 16 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs. The 8040S has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, roughly 10.7x the shading units, 4x the TMUs, and 4x the ROPs. The 8040S also includes 16 ray tracing cores, a feature the Fermi-based 820A completely lacks. The memory subsystems are fundamentally different as well: the 820A uses 1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 on a 64-bit bus with 16.02 GB/s bandwidth, while the 8040S uses system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth and no dedicated VRAM allocation.

The clock behavior also diverges. The 820A lists no base or boost clocks, only a memory clock of 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The 8040S has a 1295 MHz base clock and a 2800 MHz boost clock. This clock advantage, combined with the massive core count difference, drives the raw throughput numbers: the 8040S delivers 5.734 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the 820A's 240.0 GFLOPS, a 23.9x gap. The pixel rate tells a similar story: 89.60 GPixel/s for the 8040S versus 2.500 GPixel/s for the 820A. Texture rate is 179.2 GTexel/s versus 10.00 GTexel/s.

Power consumption scales accordingly. The 820A is rated at 15 W TDP, while the 8040S draws 55 W. Both are integrated graphics (IGP) with no power connectors, but the 8040S's higher TDP reflects its substantially larger compute footprint. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 2.0 x16 for the 820A versus PCIe 5.0 x16 for the 8040S. API support is another differentiator, the 820A supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 with no Vulkan support, while the 8040S supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: the AMD Radeon 8040S is the far more capable GPU in raw performance, with a G3D score of 10578 versus the 820A's single OpenCL score of 2983. Its architecture is modern, its core count is 10x higher, and its FP32 throughput of 5.734 TFLOPS dwarfs the 820A's 240.0 GFLOPS. Anyone needing modern gaming features like ray tracing or DirectX 12 Ultimate support should choose the 8040S without hesitation.

However, the benchmark averages tell a more complicated story. The 820A's average score of 2983 beats the 8040S's 2440, and the 820A ranks at the 19th percentile versus the 8040S's 17th. This is almost certainly an artifact of the different test suites, Geekbench OpenCL for the 820A versus PassMark for the 8040S, and the 8040S's anomalously low DirectX 9/10/11/12 scores. In practice, the 8040S should be dramatically faster in any modern workload. But if you rely strictly on the average benchmark score as a summary metric, the 820A appears to come out ahead.

For a builder choosing between these two, the decision is straightforward if you look past the averages. The 8040S is an active product from 2025, built on RDNA 3.5, with 16 ray tracing cores and a 2800 MHz boost clock. The 820A is an end-of-life part from 2014 with Fermi 2.0. The 8040S is the right pick for any modern use case. The 820A's only advantage is its lower TDP of 15 W versus 55 W, which might matter in the most power-constrained portable designs, but the performance gap is so large that this benefit is hard to justify.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce 820A | AMD Radeon 8040S |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Fermi 2.0 | RDNA 3.5 |

| Chip | GF117 | Strix Halo |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 4 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | TSMC |

| Transistors | 585 million | Unknown |

| Die Size | 116 mm² | 308 mm² |

| Base Clock | Not listed | 1295 MHz |

| Boost Clock | Not listed | 2800 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective) | System Shared |

| Memory Size | 1024 MB | System Shared |

| Memory Type | DDR3 | System Shared |

| Memory Bus Width | 64 bit | System Shared |

| Memory Bandwidth | 16.02 GB/s | System Dependent |

| Shading Units | 96 | 1024 |

| TMUs | 16 | 64 |

| ROPs | 8 | 32 |

| RT Cores | None | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 2.500 GPixel/s | 89.60 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 10.00 GTexel/s | 179.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 240.0 GFLOPS | 5.734 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not listed | 5.734 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 15 W | 55 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan | Not listed | 1.4 |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2014-03-16 | 2025-01-05 |

| Predecessor | GeForce 700A | Polaris Mobile |

| Successor | GeForce 900A | None |

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon 8040S wins in every compute-intensive scenario. The 23.9x FP32 advantage (5.734 TFLOPS versus 240.0 GFLOPS) means it is the only option for any serious 3D rendering, modern gaming, or GPU compute workload. Its 16 ray tracing cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which the 820A cannot do at all. The 4 nm process node and 2800 MHz boost clock allow it to sustain high performance in a 55 W envelope. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 make it future-proof for modern APIs. The G3D score of 10578 versus the 820A's 2983 OpenCL score is the clearest evidence of this dominance.

NVIDIA GeForce 820A wins in power efficiency and legacy compatibility. At 15 W TDP, it draws less than a third of the 8040S's 55 W. For ultra-low-power portable devices where battery life is paramount and workloads are light, this matters. Its average benchmark score of 2983 is also higher than the 8040S's 2440, and it ranks at the 19th percentile versus the 17th, though this is likely due to the different test suites. Its 2014 release date means it is well-tested across older software. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, it actually beats the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB by 2.4%, a notable result for such an old, low-power part.

The practical split: Choose the 8040S for anything involving modern gaming, 3D rendering, ray tracing, or compute workloads. Choose the 820A only if you are constrained to a 15 W power budget and your workloads are light or legacy-oriented. The 8040S's DirectX 9/10/11/12 PassMark scores are low (47-134), so if you specifically need strong legacy DirectX performance, the 820A's older Fermi architecture might actually handle those paths more gracefully, though its overall compute is far weaker. For everything else, the 8040S is the clear winner.