AMD Radeon HD 8730M vs NVIDIA Quadro K4000M Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M and AMD Radeon HD 8730M are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions from the same 28 nm era, but the benchmark data reveals a surprisingly tight contest. In the single available head-to-head benchmark, the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M scores 5986 against the AMD Radeon HD 8730M’s 5955. This yields a delta of just 0.5 percent in favor of the NVIDIA part. While the Quadro K4000M takes the win, the margin is so narrow that it falls within the noise of typical run-to-run variance. Both parts occupy the 34th percentile among all GPUs, indicating they are statistically peers in raw compute performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL workload, and it tells a story of near-parity. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M produces a score of 5986, while the AMD Radeon HD 8730M trails with 5955. The 0.5 percent delta is the entire gap between them. To put this in context, the Quadro K4000M’s nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W4100 at 5987 (a 0 percent delta) and the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 at 5982 (0.1 percent ahead). The Radeon HD 8730M’s closest competitor is the NVIDIA Quadro K620M at 5957 (0 percent delta), with the AMD Radeon HD 8750M slightly ahead at 5970. These rival clusters confirm that both cards are floating in the same performance band, separated by margins that are effectively imperceptible in real-world terms.

The single benchmark win goes to the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M, which claims 1 win against 0 for the AMD part. However, the magnitude of that win is minimal. A 0.5 percent advantage translates to roughly 30 points on a scale where the surrounding rivals are all within a 0.5 percent spread of each other. For instance, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server scores 5996, just 0.2 percent above the Quadro K4000M, while the GeForce GTX 770M hits 6000. The data suggests that any of these four GPUs could swap places in a retest. The Quadro K4000M’s win is real but not decisive, and the Radeon HD 8730M’s loss is equally marginal.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures despite sharing the same 28 nm TSMC process node. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M uses the GK104 chip under the Kepler architecture, part of the Quadro Kepler-M generation (Kx000M). It packs 3,540 million transistors onto a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.0 million per mm². The AMD Radeon HD 8730M, in contrast, uses the Mars chip under the GCN 1.0 architecture, from the Solar System generation (HD 8700M). Its die is far smaller at 77 mm², holding 950 million transistors for a density of 12.3M per mm². While the density is nearly identical, the scale is not: the NVIDIA chip has roughly 3.7 times more transistors and nearly 4 times the die area.

The compute resources diverge sharply. The Quadro K4000M features 960 shading units, 80 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 raster operations pipelines (ROPs). The Radeon HD 8730M is equipped with only 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. This 2.5-to-1 advantage in shading units and 4-to-1 advantage in ROPs should theoretically give NVIDIA a massive lead, yet the benchmark scores do not reflect that. The reason lies in clock speeds and memory configuration. The Quadro K4000M runs at a fixed 601 MHz for both base and boost, while the Radeon HD 8730M runs at 650 MHz base and 700 MHz boost. The AMD part’s higher clocks partially offset its smaller execution engine. More importantly, the memory subsystems are entirely different. NVIDIA pairs its GPU with 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 89.60 GB/s of bandwidth. AMD uses 2 GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus, yielding only 28.80 GB/s. The Quadro K4000M has over 3 times the memory bandwidth, which should dominate in bandwidth-sensitive workloads, yet the OpenCL score does not reflect that advantage.

The raw throughput numbers also tell a mixed story. The Quadro K4000M achieves a pixel rate of 12.02 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 48.08 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute at 1,153.9 GFLOPS. The Radeon HD 8730M manages only 5.600 GPixel/s and 16.80 GTexel/s, with FP32 at 537.6 GFLOPS. NVIDIA leads by roughly 2.1 times in pixel rate, 2.9 times in texture rate, and 2.1 times in FP32. Yet the OpenCL benchmark compresses that gap to 0.5 percent, suggesting that the workload is not saturating either GPU’s theoretical limits. Both parts support DirectX 12 (11_0 for NVIDIA, 11_1 for AMD) and OpenGL 4.6, with Vulkan support at 1.2.175 and 1.2.170 respectively. The bus interfaces differ: NVIDIA uses MXM-B (3.0) while AMD uses PCIe 3.0 x8. Neither has ray tracing or tensor cores.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M wins the only head-to-head test, but the advantage is negligible. The more meaningful differentiators come from the specification sheet. The Quadro K4000M’s 4 GB GDDR5 memory with 89.60 GB/s bandwidth gives it a decisive edge in workloads that require large data sets or high memory throughput. Its 256-bit bus and 32 ROPs also make it better suited for pixel-heavy tasks, as evidenced by its 12.02 GPixel/s pixel rate versus the Radeon’s 5.600 GPixel/s. The higher FP32 throughput (1,153.9 GFLOPS vs 537.6 GFLOPS) and texture rate (48.08 GTexel/s vs 16.80 GTexel/s) further point to NVIDIA having more raw compute headroom, even if the OpenCL test does not expose it.

The AMD Radeon HD 8730M wins on efficiency of design in some respects. Its higher base and boost clocks (650 MHz and 700 MHz vs 601 MHz for both on the NVIDIA) mean it extracts more performance per transistor, evidenced by the near-identical benchmark scores despite having only a fraction of the resources. The Radeon also has a smaller die (77 mm² vs 294 mm²) and fewer transistors (950 million vs 3,540 million), which would suggest lower power draw, though no TDP is listed for the AMD part. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M has a stated TDP of 100 W. In practical terms, the Radeon’s advantages are limited to scenarios where the workload is clock-bound rather than memory-bound, but the data does not provide a separate benchmark to confirm this. The Geekbench OpenCL result shows they trade blows, but NVIDIA takes the single win.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M scores 5986, which is 0.5 percent higher than the AMD Radeon HD 8730M’s 5955.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M offers 89.60 GB/s using 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, while the AMD Radeon HD 8730M provides 28.80 GB/s with 2 GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: What are the clock speeds for each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M runs at 601 MHz for both base and boost. The AMD Radeon HD 8730M runs at 650 MHz base and 700 MHz boost.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M has 960 shading units, compared to 384 on the AMD Radeon HD 8730M.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size difference?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M has 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, while the AMD Radeon HD 8730M has 950 million transistors on a 77 mm² die.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the AMD Radeon HD 8730M supports DirectX 12 (11_1).

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark contrasts in almost every category. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M uses the GK104 chip with Kepler architecture, while the AMD Radeon HD 8730M uses the Mars chip with GCN 1.0. The transistor counts differ by a factor of 3.7 (3,540 million vs 950 million), and the die sizes differ by a factor of 3.8 (294 mm² vs 77 mm²). Transistor density is nearly identical at 12.0M vs 12.3M per mm². Clock speeds favor AMD: 601 MHz base and boost for NVIDIA versus 650 MHz base and 700 MHz boost for AMD. Memory is a major divergence: 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 89.60 GB/s bandwidth for NVIDIA, versus 2 GB DDR3 on a 128-bit bus with 28.80 GB/s for AMD.

The execution units are heavily skewed toward NVIDIA: 960 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs versus 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. Pixel rate (12.02 vs 5.600 GPixel/s), texture rate (48.08 vs 16.80 GTexel/s), and FP32 compute (1,153.9 vs 537.6 GFLOPS) all favor NVIDIA by roughly 2 to 3 times. The TDP is listed as 100 W for NVIDIA, with no TDP provided for AMD. The bus interface differs: MXM-B (3.0) for NVIDIA, PCIe 3.0 x8 for AMD. Both support OpenGL 4.6, but Vulkan versions differ slightly (1.2.175 vs 1.2.170). The AMD part supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 (11_0). Neither GPU has ray tracing or tensor cores, and both are end-of-life products.

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a paradox: the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M wins the only head-to-head test, but the margin is so small that it is practically a tie. The 0.5 percent delta in Geekbench OpenCL does not reflect the massive hardware differences. If the decision rests solely on the benchmark score, the Quadro K4000M is the nominal winner, but the Radeon HD 8730M offers comparable performance with far fewer resources. For users who need the highest memory bandwidth (89.60 GB/s), the largest frame buffer (4 GB), and the most compute throughput (1,153.9 GFLOPS), the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M is the clear choice based on specifications. Its 32 ROPs and 80 TMUs also make it better suited for fill-rate-heavy tasks, even if the OpenCL test does not expose those strengths.

For users prioritizing a smaller, simpler solution, the AMD Radeon HD 8730M’s 77 mm² die and 950 million transistors achieve 99.5 percent of the NVIDIA’s benchmark score. Its higher clock speeds (700 MHz boost) suggest it can be more responsive in clock-bound scenarios, though no separate benchmark confirms this. The absence of a TDP for the AMD part makes power comparison impossible, but its smaller die implies lower consumption. The data shows that the Quadro K4000M is the more capable part on paper, yet the Radeon HD 8730M delivers nearly identical results in the one test available. The verdict is straightforward: choose the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M if memory capacity and bandwidth are priorities, or the AMD Radeon HD 8730M if the near-identical compute score and smaller footprint are sufficient. Given the 0.5 percent benchmark gap, either choice is defensible, but the NVIDIA part edges ahead in every specification category except clock speed and DirectX version.