AMD Radeon HD 8850M vs NVIDIA GeForce 945M Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce 945M vs AMD Radeon HD 8850M

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M is the clear winner in this head-to-head matchup, delivering an 8.8% higher OpenCL benchmark score than the AMD Radeon HD 8850M. This advantage places the 945M in the 42nd percentile of all GPUs, while the 8850M sits at the 40th percentile—a narrow but consistent gap that reflects the 945M's superior throughput metrics across the board.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole available benchmark comparison is Geekbench OpenCL, and the results are unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M scores 8,099 points, while the AMD Radeon HD 8850M manages 7,447 points. That is an 8.8% difference in favor of the NVIDIA part, a margin that separates these two mobile GPUs into distinct performance tiers.

Looking at the nearest rival data confirms this positioning. The 945M's closest competitor is the AMD Radeon R9 M360 at 8,129 points, a difference of only 0.4%, meaning the 945M essentially trades blows with that GPU. On the lower side, the NVIDIA GRID K2 sits at 8,080 points (0.2% difference), and the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost at 8,067 points (0.4% difference). The GeForce GTX 950M is marginally ahead at 8,135 points, just 0.4% higher than the 945M. This cluster of scores between roughly 8,067 and 8,135 points shows that the 945M is right at the edge of a competitive tier, where a few percentage points separate it from both slightly slower and slightly faster contemporaries.

For the AMD Radeon HD 8850M, the nearest rivals tell a different story. The Intel UHD Graphics 750 scores 7,441 points, a mere 0.1% behind the 8850M, putting the AMD part in a virtual tie with that integrated solution. The AMD Radeon R7 350 is 0.3% behind at 7,425 points. However, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 sits at 7,472 points, 0.3% ahead, and the Intel Arc A310 is 1.4% ahead at 7,550 points. This positioning reveals that the 8850M is competitive with modern integrated graphics and low-end discrete options, but it cannot reach the performance class occupied by the 945M.

The raw compute metrics corroborate the benchmark result. The 945M achieves 1,305.6 GFLOPS of FP32 throughput, while the 8850M delivers 800.0 GFLOPS—a 63.2% advantage for the NVIDIA part in raw mathematical capability. Pixel fill rates follow a similar pattern: 16.32 GPixel/s for the 945M versus 10.00 GPixel/s for the 8850M. Texture fill rates stand at 40.80 GTexel/s versus 25.00 GTexel/s. These figures show that the NVIDIA GPU has substantially higher peak throughput in every measurable rendering pipeline stage.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M wins in every benchmark category where both were measured. Geekbench OpenCL is the only direct comparison, and the 945M takes it by 8.8%. Beyond that, the 945M's clock speed advantage is decisive. Its base clock of 928 MHz and boost clock of 1,020 MHz dwarf the 8850M's 575 MHz base and 625 MHz boost. Higher clocks, combined with identical shading unit counts (640 for both), translate directly into the throughput advantages noted above.

The memory subsystem also favors the 945M, though with a nuance. Both GPUs use a 128-bit bus and 2 GB of VRAM, but the 8850M employs GDDR5 memory running at 1,000 MHz with 4 Gbps effective data rate, producing 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The 945M uses DDR3 at 900 MHz with 1,800 Mbps effective, yielding only 28.80 GB/s. This is a significant bandwidth deficit for the NVIDIA part—less than half of the AMD GPU's memory bandwidth. However, the 945M's higher compute throughput compensates for this in the OpenCL workload, which appears to be more compute-bound than bandwidth-bound.

The AMD Radeon HD 8850M, despite losing the benchmark, has advantages that could matter in specific scenarios. Its GDDR5 memory provides over twice the bandwidth of the 945M's DDR3, which could benefit texture-heavy workloads or applications that access memory more intensively. The 8850M also supports DirectX 12 at feature level 11_1, whereas the 945M supports DirectX 12 at 11_0—a small but real feature-level difference. In Vulkan support, the 945M claims version 1.4 while the 8850M only reaches 1.2.170, giving NVIDIA the edge in that newer API.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 945M scores 8,099 points, which is 8.8% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 8850M's 7,447 points.

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

A: The 945M sits within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon R9 M360 (8,129 points) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M (8,135 points), while the 8850M is within 0.3% of the Intel UHD Graphics 750 (7,441 points) and the AMD Radeon R7 350 (7,425 points).

Q: Which GPU has better memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 8850M uses GDDR5 memory with a 64.00 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than double the 28.80 GB/s of the NVIDIA GeForce 945M's DDR3 memory.

Q: Do both GPUs have the same shader and texture unit counts?

A: Yes, both GPUs feature 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs.

Q: What are the release dates for these GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 945M was released on 2015-10-26, while the AMD Radeon HD 8850M was released on 2013-03-31.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile rank among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 945M is in the 42nd percentile, while the AMD Radeon HD 8850M is in the 40th percentile.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in several key specifications beyond their benchmark scores. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M has base and boost clocks of 928 MHz and 1,020 MHz respectively, whereas the AMD Radeon HD 8850M operates at 575 MHz base and 625 MHz boost. Memory type differs: the 945M uses DDR3 at 900 MHz (1,800 Mbps effective), while the 8850M uses GDDR5 at 1,000 MHz (4 Gbps effective). This results in memory bandwidth of 28.80 GB/s for the 945M versus 64.00 GB/s for the 8850M.

The pixel rate is 16.32 GPixel/s for the 945M versus 10.00 GPixel/s for the 8850M. Texture rate stands at 40.80 GTexel/s versus 25.00 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 1,305.6 GFLOPS versus 800.0 GFLOPS. The 945M has a TDP of 75 W and uses an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface, while the 8850M has no listed TDP and uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The 945M's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," while the 8850M has no display output information.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M is based on the GM107 chip using the Maxwell architecture, built by TSMC on a 28 nm process. It contains 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.6M per mm². The AMD Radeon HD 8850M uses the Venus chip with GCN 1.0 architecture, also on TSMC's 28 nm node. It packs 1,500 million transistors into a 123 mm² die, for a density of 12.2M per mm². The 945M belongs to the GeForce 900M generation, while the 8850M is part of the Solar System (HD 8800M) generation.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6, but the 8850M reaches a higher DirectX 12 feature level (11_1 versus 11_0 for the 945M). Vulkan support favors the 945M at version 1.4, compared to 1.2.170 for the 8850M. The 945M has a 75 W TDP and comes as an MXM Module with no power connectors required. The 8850M's power specifications are not listed. The 945M uses an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface, while the 8850M uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

In terms of product lifecycle, the 945M's predecessor is the GeForce 800M and its successor is GeForce 10 Mobile. The 8850M's predecessor is "London" and its successor is "Gem System." Both are end-of-life products.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion: the NVIDIA GeForce 945M outperforms the AMD Radeon HD 8850M in compute workloads, taking the only measured benchmark by 8.8%. Its higher clock speeds and greater FP32 throughput make it the stronger choice for general GPU compute tasks and applications that leverage OpenCL. Gamers and professionals who rely on raw compute performance should favor the 945M, as it also carries a higher percentile ranking (42nd versus 40th) and more modern architecture features like Vulkan 1.4 support.

However, the AMD Radeon HD 8850M is not without merit. Its GDDR5 memory provides 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth—more than double the 945M's 28.80 GB/s—which could make it preferable for bandwidth-sensitive workloads such as large texture streaming or certain image processing tasks. The 8850M also offers a slightly higher DirectX 12 feature level, which might matter for specific compatibility scenarios.

For users choosing between these two end-of-life mobile GPUs, the decision hinges on workload characteristics. If the task is compute-bound and benefits from high shader throughput, the NVIDIA GeForce 945M is the clear winner. If memory bandwidth dominates the workload, the AMD Radeon HD 8850M's faster GDDR5 could narrow or even reverse the gap seen in OpenCL testing. Given that the 945M wins the benchmark while also offering a modern architecture and better API support, it is the safer default recommendation for most use cases.