AMD Radeon HD 6950 vs NVIDIA GeForce MX230 Comparison

The AMD Radeon HD 6950 and NVIDIA GeForce MX230 represent two very different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. The HD 6950 is a high-end desktop part from 2010, built on a massive 40 nm die with a 200 W power draw, while the MX230 is a low-power mobile chip from 2019, using a 14 nm process and consuming just 10 W. In the single available OpenCL benchmark, the older desktop card leads by 8.2%, but the comparison extends far beyond raw compute, touching on API support, memory bandwidth, and feature sets that define their respective use cases.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6950 has an average benchmark score of 6210, while the NVIDIA GeForce MX230 scores 6077. The HD 6950 sits at the 36th percentile of all GPUs, while the MX230 is at the 35th percentile, placing them nearly identically in the overall performance distribution.

Q: How much faster is the HD 6950 in the head-to-head OpenCL test?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon HD 6950 scores 6210 against the MX230's 5739, resulting in an 8.2% lead for the AMD card. This is the only shared benchmark in the data set, and the HD 6950 wins it outright.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6950 has a 200 W TDP, requires a 550 W suggested power supply, and uses two 6-pin power connectors. The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 has a 10 W TDP, requires no power connectors, and has no suggested PSU listed, reflecting its integrated-class mobile design.

Q: Which GPU supports Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 supports Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD Radeon HD 6950 has no Vulkan support listed. The MX230 also supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6, whereas the HD 6950 is limited to DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4.

Q: How do the memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6950 offers 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth via a 256-bit bus, while the NVIDIA GeForce MX230 delivers 48.06 GB/s over a 64-bit bus. Both use 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, but the HD 6950's wider interface gives it more than three times the bandwidth.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce MX230, built on a 14 nm Samsung process, has a transistor density of 24.3M per mm². The AMD Radeon HD 6950, on TSMC's 40 nm node, has a density of just 6.8M per mm², despite packing more total transistors (2,640 million vs. 1,800 million).

Architecture Differences

The fundamental architectural gap between these two GPUs is stark. The AMD Radeon HD 6950 uses the Cayman chip with TeraScale 3 architecture, part of the Northern Islands generation. It is built on a 40 nm TSMC process with 2,640 million transistors on a 389 mm² die. The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 uses the GP108 chip with Pascal architecture, from the GeForce MX (2xx) generation. It is fabricated on a 14 nm Samsung process with 1,800 million transistors on a much smaller 74 mm² die.

The compute resources differ by an order of magnitude. The HD 6950 has 1,408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The MX230 has 256 shading units, 16 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. This translates to a massive throughput advantage for the AMD card: 2.253 TFLOPS FP32 performance versus 783.9 GFLOPS for the NVIDIA part. The pixel rate is close (25.60 GPixel/s vs. 24.50 GPixel/s), but the texture rate diverges sharply — 70.40 GTexel/s for the HD 6950 versus 24.50 GTexel/s for the MX230.

Memory architecture also separates them. Both use 2 GB of GDDR5, but the HD 6950 has a 256-bit bus delivering 160.0 GB/s, while the MX230 is constrained to a 64-bit bus with 48.06 GB/s. The MX230's memory runs at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective), while the HD 6950's memory runs at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) — the NVIDIA part uses a faster clock but far narrower path.

The feature set reflects the generational gap. The MX230 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The HD 6950 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0), OpenGL 4.4, and has no Vulkan support. The MX230 also has a base clock of 1519 MHz and boost clock of 1531 MHz, while the HD 6950 has no base or boost clock listed, only its memory clock. The MX230's FP16 performance is listed at 12.25 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), a figure the HD 6950 does not provide.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon HD 6950 wins on raw compute and bandwidth, as evidenced by its 8.2% lead in the OpenCL benchmark. Its 2.253 TFLOPS FP32 output and 160.0 GB/s bandwidth make it better suited for compute-heavy workloads that can utilize its 1,408 shading units and 88 TMUs. The 70.40 GTexel/s texture rate suggests strong performance in texture-bound scenarios, and the 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs give it flexibility for multi-monitor desktop setups.

The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 wins on efficiency and modern API compatibility. Its 10 W TDP is a fraction of the HD 6950's 200 W, making it viable for thin-and-light laptops where power draw and heat are critical. The MX230's support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 means it can run modern titles and applications that require these APIs, which the HD 6950 cannot. Its PCIe 3.0 x4 interface is newer than the HD 6950's PCIe 2.0 x16, though the latter has more lanes. The MX230's portable-device-dependent display outputs reflect its mobile nature, while its lack of power connectors and IGP slot width further underscore its low-power design.

The performance percentile data shows the two are extremely close overall — the HD 6950 at the 36th percentile and the MX230 at the 35th. This near-tie in the broader GPU landscape suggests that for general compute tasks, the architectural efficiency of the MX230 nearly compensates for its far smaller resource pool. However, the HD 6950's single benchmark win indicates that where raw throughput matters, the older card retains an edge.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon HD 6950 | NVIDIA GeForce MX230 |

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

| Chip | Cayman | GP108 |

| Architecture | TeraScale 3 | Pascal |

| Process Node | 40 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 2,640 million | 1,800 million |

| Die Size | 389 mm² | 74 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 6.8M / mm² | 24.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | — | 1519 MHz |

| Boost Clock | — | 1531 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1250 MHz (5 Gbps) | 1502 MHz (6 Gbps) |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 64 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 160.0 GB/s | 48.06 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1408 | 256 |

| TMUs | 88 | 16 |

| ROPs | 32 | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 25.60 GPixel/s | 24.50 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 70.40 GTexel/s | 24.50 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.253 TFLOPS | 783.9 GFLOPS |

| FP16 | — | 12.25 GFLOPS (1:64) |

| TDP | 200 W | 10 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 2x 6-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | — |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x4 |

| DirectX | 11.2 (11_0) | 12 (12_1) |

| OpenGL | 4.4 | 4.6 |

| Vulkan | — | 1.4 |

| Display Outputs | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 | Portable Device Dependent |

| Release Date | 2010-12-13 | 2019-02-20 |

The launch MSRP for the AMD Radeon HD 6950 was 299 USD. The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 has no launch MSRP listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this test, the AMD Radeon HD 6950 scores 6210, while the NVIDIA GeForce MX230 scores 5739. The delta is 8.2% in favor of the AMD card, giving it one win in the head-to-head tally versus zero for the NVIDIA part.

This result is consistent with the architectural disparity. The HD 6950's 2.253 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is nearly three times the MX230's 783.9 GFLOPS, and its 160.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is more than triple the MX230's 48.06 GB/s. The OpenCL workload appears to reward these raw resources, allowing the older card to overcome the MX230's much higher clock speeds (1519 MHz base / 1531 MHz boost) and newer architecture.

However, context from the rivalry data tempers the significance of this win. The HD 6950's nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W600 (avg score 6223, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AD102 (avg score 6270, delta -0.9%), and the NVIDIA Quadro K620 (avg score 6282, delta -1.1%). These deltas are all within 1.1% of the HD 6950's score, indicating that it sits in a tightly packed performance cluster where small variations are common.

The MX230's nearest rivals are similarly close: the NVIDIA RTX A400 (avg score 6078, delta 0%), the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (avg score 6049, delta 0.5%), and the AMD Radeon 760M (avg score 6019, delta 1%). The MX230's average score of 6077 places it right at parity with the RTX A400 and slightly below the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 (avg score 6117, delta -0.7%).

In the broader percentile ranking, the two GPUs are nearly inseparable: the HD 6950 is at the 36th percentile of all GPUs, and the MX230 is at the 35th. This means that despite the HD 6950's decisive win in the single OpenCL test, the overall performance landscape treats them as near-equivalents. The MX230's Vulkan score of 6414, which has no comparable HD 6950 data point, suggests that the NVIDIA card may have strengths in modern API workloads that the older AMD card cannot access at all. The data shows a clear split: the HD 6950 wins on legacy compute throughput, while the MX230 holds its own through architectural efficiency and API modernity.