AMD Radeon 820M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q Comparison

FAQ

Q: What are the fundamental differences in architecture between the AMD Radeon 820M and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q?

A: The AMD Radeon 820M uses the RDNA 3.5 architecture on a 4 nm process, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q uses the Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm process. The AMD chip is part of the Navi III IGP generation for Strix Point Mobile, whereas the NVIDIA chip belongs to the GeForce 40 Mobile generation.

Q: How do the shading unit counts compare between the two GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q has 4,608 shading units, which is 36 times the 128 shading units found in the AMD Radeon 820M. This massive difference in shading unit count directly influences the compute throughput capabilities of each GPU.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon 820M uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent, meaning its performance relies entirely on the host system's memory configuration.

Q: How do the clock speeds differ?

A: The AMD Radeon 820M has a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2800 MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q has a substantially lower base clock of 735 MHz but a much lower boost clock of 1230 MHz, reflecting its different power and thermal design priorities.

Q: What are the power consumption specifications for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon 820M has a TDP of 15 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q has a TDP of 35 W. Both are classified as IGP (integrated graphics processor) slot width, and neither requires external power connectors.

Q: What is the release timeline for these products?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q was released on January 2, 2023, and has a successor in the GeForce 50 Mobile series. The AMD Radeon 820M was released on February 28, 2025, and its predecessor is listed as the Navi II IGP.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon 820M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q represent two fundamentally different approaches to mobile graphics. The AMD part is built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture using a 4 nm process at TSMC, belonging to the Navi III IGP generation designed for Strix Point Mobile platforms. The NVIDIA part uses the Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm process at TSMC, belonging to the GeForce 40 Mobile generation. The process node difference gives AMD a modest manufacturing advantage, though the two chips serve very different market positions.

The transistor budgets tell a stark story. The NVIDIA AD106 chip contains 22,900 million transistors on a 188 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.8M per mm². The AMD Radeon 820M's transistor count and die size are listed as unknown in the database, reflecting its integrated nature. The NVIDIA chip is a discrete-class GPU even in its Max-Q configuration, while the AMD part is an integrated graphics solution.

Compute resources differ dramatically. The AMD Radeon 820M has 128 shading units, 8 texture mapping units, and 4 raster output units. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q has 4,608 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. In terms of specialized hardware, the AMD part has 2 ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The NVIDIA part has 36 ray tracing cores and 144 tensor cores, the latter being essential for AI-accelerated workloads such as DLSS.

The memory architecture is another major divergence. The AMD Radeon 820M uses System Shared memory for both capacity and type, with a system-dependent bandwidth figure. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q has dedicated 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This means the NVIDIA GPU does not compete with the CPU for system memory bandwidth, whereas the AMD IGP's performance scales with the host platform's memory speed.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, placing them on equal footing for API compatibility. Both also use a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface and have display outputs listed as Portable Device Dependent, reflecting their mobile-focused designs.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon 820M is positioned for ultra-low-power integrated graphics scenarios. Its 15 W TDP makes it suitable for thin-and-light notebooks where battery life and thermal management take priority over raw performance. The 400 MHz base clock with a 2800 MHz boost suggests the chip can scale up significantly when thermal headroom allows, but its 128 shading units and 4 ROPs cap its absolute output. The RDNA 3.5 architecture with 2 ray tracing cores provides basic hardware acceleration for ray-traced content, though the compute resources are limited.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q delivers substantially higher performance across nearly every measurable metric. Its 4,608 shading units provide 36 times the shader count of the AMD part. The 144 tensor cores enable AI features that the AMD GPU cannot match. The dedicated 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures consistent memory performance independent of the host system. The 36 ray tracing cores provide much more capable hardware ray tracing. With a 35 W TDP, it uses more power but delivers far greater throughput.

The data indicates the NVIDIA GPU wins on raw compute, memory bandwidth, and feature support for AI acceleration. The AMD GPU wins on power efficiency at idle and light loads, given its significantly lower TDP. For gaming workloads, the NVIDIA part's 11.34 TFLOPS FP32 performance versus the AMD part's 716.8 GFLOPS represents a 15.8x advantage in theoretical compute. For content creation tasks such as 3D rendering or video processing, the NVIDIA GPU's higher texture rate (177.1 GTexel/s versus 22.40 GTexel/s) and pixel rate (59.04 GPixel/s versus 11.20 GPixel/s) give it commanding leads.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly all core specifications. The AMD Radeon 820M uses the RDNA 3.5 architecture on a 4 nm process, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q uses Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm process. The NVIDIA chip carries 22,900 million transistors on a 188 mm² die; the AMD chip's transistor count and die size are unknown.

Clock behavior diverges significantly. The AMD part has a 400 MHz base clock and 2800 MHz boost clock. The NVIDIA part has a 735 MHz base clock and 1230 MHz boost clock. The AMD chip's boost clock is more than double the NVIDIA chip's, though this reflects the different core counts and power envelopes.

Memory configurations are entirely different. The AMD Radeon 820M uses System Shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Compute unit counts show the NVIDIA GPU's scale: 4,608 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs versus the AMD's 128 shading units, 8 TMUs, and 4 ROPs. Ray tracing cores number 36 for NVIDIA versus 2 for AMD. Tensor cores exist only on the NVIDIA part, with 144 units.

Theoretical performance figures favor NVIDIA overwhelmingly. FP32 performance is 11.34 TFLOPS for NVIDIA versus 716.8 GFLOPS for AMD. FP16 performance matches the FP32 figures at a 1:1 ratio for both. Pixel rate is 59.04 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 11.20 GPixel/s for AMD. Texture rate is 177.1 GTexel/s for NVIDIA versus 22.40 GTexel/s for AMD.

Power specifications show a 35 W TDP for NVIDIA and 15 W for AMD. Both are IGP slot width with no power connectors. Both use PCIe 4.0 x8. Release dates differ by over two years: NVIDIA on January 2, 2023, and AMD on February 28, 2025.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database does not contain direct head-to-head benchmark scores for these two GPUs, and the benchmark arrays are empty for both. However, the recorded specification data provides clear quantitative comparisons across every measurable performance dimension.

The largest advantage for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q appears in shading unit count. With 4,608 units versus 128 for the AMD Radeon 820M, the NVIDIA GPU has 36 times the shader resources. This translates directly to FP32 compute: 11.34 TFLOPS versus 716.8 GFLOPS, a 15.8x difference in raw floating-point throughput.

Memory bandwidth shows a similarly decisive gap. The NVIDIA GPU's 256.0 GB/s dedicated bandwidth contrasts with the AMD GPU's system-dependent figure, which in practice depends entirely on the host platform's memory configuration. The NVIDIA GPU also has a fixed 8 GB capacity, while the AMD GPU shares system memory.

Texture and pixel throughput favor NVIDIA by wide margins. The texture rate of 177.1 GTexel/s is 7.9x the AMD part's 22.40 GTexel/s. The pixel rate of 59.04 GPixel/s is 5.3x the AMD part's 11.20 GPixel/s. These figures indicate that the NVIDIA GPU can fill geometry and process pixels substantially faster, which matters for high-resolution rendering and complex visual effects.

Ray tracing resources differ by a factor of 18, with 36 RT cores for NVIDIA versus 2 for AMD. The NVIDIA GPU also has 144 tensor cores that the AMD part lacks entirely, enabling AI-based features such as DLSS that require dedicated tensor hardware.

The AMD Radeon 820M's advantages are confined to power consumption and clock speed. Its 15 W TDP is less than half the NVIDIA GPU's 35 W, and its 2800 MHz boost clock is more than double the NVIDIA's 1230 MHz. These factors make the AMD part more suitable for systems where power draw is the primary constraint.

The data indicates that these GPUs occupy completely different performance tiers. The AMD Radeon 820M is designed for basic graphics acceleration in low-power mobile devices, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q is built for demanding gaming and creative workloads within a mobile power envelope. The specification gap is so large that the two products would rarely appear in the same system configuration, and the benchmark data, while absent, would almost certainly reflect the massive compute and memory advantages held by the NVIDIA part.