AMD Radeon HD 8730M vs NVIDIA GeForce 940M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded head-to-head benchmark places the NVIDIA GeForce 940M narrowly ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 8730M. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the GeForce 940M scores 6018 against 5955 for the Radeon HD 8730M, a delta of just 1%. This is effectively a statistical tie in a single workload, but the direction is consistent with the rest of the database record.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the GeForce 940M has a second recorded result in Geekbench Vulkan at 4549, which pulls its average benchmark score down to 5284 across both tests. The Radeon HD 8730M has only one recorded benchmark, so its average score equals its OpenCL result of 5955. When comparing average scores, the Radeon HD 8730M actually holds a 12.7% advantage over the GeForce 940M, but this is an artifact of the NVIDIA part having a lower Vulkan score included in its average.

The nearest rival data for each card reveals how close this tier of mobile graphics truly is. The Radeon HD 8730M sits within 0.5% of the NVIDIA Quadro K620M (5957), within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon HD 8750M (5970), and within 0.5% of the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 (5982). It also edges out the Intel UHD Graphics 730 (5929) by 0.4%. The GeForce 940M, by contrast, is positioned against a different set of peers: it trails the GeForce GTX 980M by 0.4% (5308), trails the GeForce 930A by 0.6% (5317), trails the GeForce 840M by 0.7% (5322), and leads the GeForce GTX 760M by 0.9% (5236). The fact that the GeForce 940M's nearest rivals cluster around 5300, while the Radeon HD 8730M's rivals cluster near 5950, reflects the different benchmark averaging methodologies rather than a straightforward performance hierarchy.

The percentile rankings tell a similar story. The Radeon HD 8730M sits at the 34th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the GeForce 940M sits at the 31st percentile. These are both entry-level mobile parts, and the data shows neither card is positioned to compete with anything beyond modest gaming or general compute workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the head-to-head OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 940M wins by a 1% margin, scoring 6018 against the AMD Radeon HD 8730M's 5955.

Q: Does the GeForce 940M have a higher average benchmark score?

A: No. The GeForce 940M has an average benchmark score of 5284 across its OpenCL and Vulkan results, while the Radeon HD 8730M has an average of 5955 from its single OpenCL result.

Q: How do these cards compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon HD 8730M trades blows with the NVIDIA Quadro K620M (0% delta), AMD Radeon HD 8750M (-0.3%), Intel UHD Graphics 730 (+0.4%), and NVIDIA Quadro K4000 (-0.5%). The GeForce 940M sits within 1% of the GeForce GTX 980M, GeForce 930A, GeForce 840M, and GeForce GTX 760M.

Q: Which card has the higher pixel fill rate?

A: The GeForce 940M has a pixel rate of 17.57 GPixel/s, which is more than three times the Radeon HD 8730M's 5.600 GPixel/s.

Q: What API levels do these cards support?

A: The Radeon HD 8730M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GeForce 940M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What is the transistor density of each GPU?

A: The Radeon HD 8730M has a transistor density of 12.3 million transistors per square millimeter, while the GeForce 940M has 12.6 million per square millimeter.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear but narrow conclusion: the GeForce 940M is the faster card in raw compute terms where its Vulkan result is ignored, but the Radeon HD 8730M is the more consistent performer when all recorded scores are averaged. For users who prioritize the OpenCL workload specifically, the GeForce 940M's 1% lead is the deciding factor. For users who want a card that maintains a higher average score across a broader benchmark set, the Radeon HD 8730M's 5955 average versus 5284 is the differentiator.

The 34th percentile placement for the Radeon HD 8730M versus the 31st percentile for the GeForce 940M reinforces that both are low-tier mobile parts. Neither card should be expected to handle demanding modern titles or heavy compute tasks. The GeForce 940M does bring a substantially higher pixel rate (17.57 GPixel/s versus 5.600 GPixel/s), which matters for fill-rate-bound scenarios, but its memory bandwidth is halved (14.40 GB/s versus 28.80 GB/s), which will hurt in bandwidth-sensitive workloads.

For the user who must pick one of these two, the deciding factor should be workload profile. The GeForce 940M is the choice for OpenCL compute and fill-rate-bound rendering. The Radeon HD 8730M is the choice for applications that depend on memory bandwidth or that benefit from its higher average benchmark score.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification. The Radeon HD 8730M uses the Mars chip built on GCN 1.0 architecture from the Solar System generation (HD 8700M). The GeForce 940M uses the GM107 chip built on Maxwell architecture from the GeForce 900M generation.

Clock speeds favor the GeForce 940M significantly. Its base clock is 1020 MHz and boost clock is 1098 MHz, compared to the Radeon HD 8730M's 650 MHz base and 700 MHz boost. Both cards run their memory at 900 MHz with 1800 Mbps effective, so the memory clock is identical.

Memory configuration is a mixed bag. Both cards have 2 GB of DDR3 memory, but the Radeon HD 8730M uses a 128-bit bus with 28.80 GB/s of bandwidth, while the GeForce 940M uses a 64-bit bus with 14.40 GB/s. The Radeon HD 8730M has double the memory bandwidth.

Compute resources favor the GeForce 940M. It has 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. The Radeon HD 8730M has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and only 8 ROPs. The GeForce 940M's pixel rate is 17.57 GPixel/s versus 5.600 GPixel/s for the Radeon, and its texture rate is 35.14 GTexel/s versus 16.80 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 1,124.4 GFLOPS for the GeForce 940M versus 537.6 GFLOPS for the Radeon HD 8730M.

The bus interface differs as well. The Radeon HD 8730M uses PCIe 3.0 x8, while the GeForce 940M uses MXM-B (3.0). The GeForce 940M has a listed TDP of 75 W, whereas the Radeon HD 8730M has no TDP recorded. The GeForce 940M is an MXM module with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs; the Radeon HD 8730M has no display output information recorded.

Architecture Differences

The architectures represent two different design philosophies from their respective manufacturers. The Radeon HD 8730M is built on GCN 1.0, AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 28 nm process. The chip contains 950 million transistors on a 77 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. The GeForce 940M uses NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture, also on TSMC's 28 nm process, but packs 1,870 million transistors onto a 148 mm² die, for a density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. The Maxwell chip has nearly double the transistor count and almost double the die area.

The shading and texture resources reflect these architectural differences. The GeForce 940M's 512 shading units and 32 TMUs outnumber the Radeon HD 8730M's 384 shading units and 24 TMUs. The ROP count is doubled on the GeForce 940M: 16 versus 8. Neither card has any ray tracing cores or tensor cores, which is expected for parts from this era.

API support shows a notable split. The Radeon HD 8730M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the GeForce 940M supports DirectX 12 (11_0). The Radeon's 11_1 feature level is a higher DirectX 12 feature level than the GeForce's 11_0. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The Vulkan support differs: the Radeon HD 8730M supports Vulkan 1.2.170, while the GeForce 940M supports Vulkan 1.4, a newer specification version.

The production status for both is end-of-life. The Radeon HD 8730M was released on 2013-03-31, with its predecessor being London and its successor being Gem System. The GeForce 940M was released on 2015-03-12, with its predecessor being GeForce 800M and its successor being GeForce 10 Mobile. The GeForce 940M is a generation newer, but both are firmly in the legacy category.

Where Each One Wins

The GeForce 940M wins in raw compute throughput. Its FP32 performance of 1,124.4 GFLOPS is more than double the Radeon HD 8730M's 537.6 GFLOPS. Its pixel rate of 17.57 GPixel/s is more than triple the Radeon's 5.600 GPixel/s, and its texture rate of 35.14 GTexel/s is more than double the Radeon's 16.80 GTexel/s. The GeForce 940M also wins the single head-to-head OpenCL benchmark by 1%.

The Radeon HD 8730M wins in memory bandwidth. Its 28.80 GB/s is exactly double the GeForce 940M's 14.40 GB/s, thanks to the 128-bit bus versus the 64-bit bus. This matters for workloads that stream large amounts of data, such as certain compute kernels, texture-heavy scenes, or applications that benefit from wider memory paths. The Radeon HD 8730M also wins on average benchmark score: 5955 versus 5284, a 12.7% advantage.

The Radeon HD 8730M also holds a higher percentile ranking at 34 versus 31, indicating that among all GPUs in the database, it outperforms a slightly larger share of the field. Its nearest rivals include the Quadro K620M and Quadro K4000, professional mobile parts that score within 0.5% of it, which suggests it can hold its own against some workstation-class GPUs from the same era. The GeForce 940M's nearest rivals are all GeForce parts, and it leads only the GeForce GTX 760M by 0.9% while trailing the GeForce 930A, GeForce 840M, and GeForce GTX 980M.

For compute users who can leverage OpenCL specifically, the GeForce 940M is the safer pick. For users who need memory bandwidth or who want the higher average score across a wider benchmark set, the Radeon HD 8730M is the data-supported choice. The GeForce 940M's higher clock speeds and larger compute resource counts give it an edge in shader-bound scenarios, while the Radeon HD 8730M's wider memory bus gives it an edge in bandwidth-bound scenarios. Neither card is a clear winner across the board, and the 1% head-to-head delta reflects just how close these two parts are in practice.