AMD Radeon HD 8870M vs Intel Arc A380 Comparison

The Intel Arc A380 and AMD Radeon HD 8870M represent two very different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. The data shows a clear overall winner in the Intel Arc A380, which holds an average benchmark score of 8558 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 8870M's 8462. However, the comparison is not a simple sweep; the AMD card remains competitive in specific legacy contexts, while the Intel card demonstrates overwhelming superiority in modern compute workloads. The Intel Arc A380 sits at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon HD 8870M ranks at the 43rd, placing them adjacent in the overall performance distribution.

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head benchmark data provides a single point of comparison, but the wider benchmark suite reveals distinct areas of strength. The Intel Arc A380 wins the only direct head-to-head test, the Geekbench OpenCL compute benchmark, with a score of 38224 against the AMD Radeon HD 8870M's 8462. This represents a massive 351.7% advantage for the Intel card, indicating that its modern architecture is dramatically better suited for general-purpose GPU compute tasks that leverage OpenCL.

Beyond that single test, the Intel Arc A380 has a full suite of benchmark results across various DirectX versions and compute workloads. Its Passmark G3D score of 6252, Passmark GPU Compute score of 2762, and Geekbench Vulkan score of 36736 all demonstrate a modern GPU capable of handling contemporary graphics APIs. The AMD Radeon HD 8870M, in contrast, only has a Geekbench OpenCL score in the provided data, which limits the analysis of its broader capabilities. However, its presence in the nearest rivals list for both products, with a deltaPct of 1.1% against the Arc A380's average score, suggests that in the aggregate of all benchmark results, the two cards are very closely matched, with the Intel card holding a slim 1.1% edge.

The AMD card's win condition is not based on any single benchmark victory but on its position as a near-peer in the overall average score. Its average score of 8462 is within 1.1% of the Intel Arc A380's 8558. This indicates that for workloads that do not heavily utilize modern features like hardware ray tracing or the latest DirectX 12 Ultimate API, the older GCN architecture can still hold its own. The Intel card wins decisively in compute-heavy and modern API scenarios, while the AMD card remains a viable option for legacy applications that do not benefit from the newer architecture's strengths.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is vast and explains the benchmark results. The Intel Arc A380 is built on the Xe-HPG architecture, specifically the DG2-128 chip, using a 6 nm process at TSMC. This is a stark contrast to the AMD Radeon HD 8870M, which uses the GCN 1.0 architecture with the Venus chip on a 28 nm process. The manufacturing process difference alone is significant, with the Intel chip packing 7,200 million transistors into a 157 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.9M per mm². The AMD chip, by comparison, has only 1,500 million transistors on a larger 123 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 12.2M per mm².

This transistor advantage translates directly into raw compute resources. The Intel Arc A380 has 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 render output units (ROPs). It also features 8 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the AMD Radeon HD 8870M, which has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Intel card's clock speeds are also significantly higher, with a base clock of 2000 MHz and a boost clock of 2050 MHz, compared to the AMD card's 725 MHz base and 775 MHz boost. This results in a theoretical peak FP32 performance of 4.198 TFLOPS for the Intel card versus 992.0 GFLOPS for the AMD card.

Memory subsystems further differentiate the two. The Intel Arc A380 comes with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, delivering 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon HD 8870M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 72.00 GB/s. While the AMD card has a wider bus, the Intel card's faster memory type and higher clock speed give it a substantial bandwidth advantage. The Intel card also supports a newer PCIe interface (4.0 x8 versus 3.0 x16), and its API support is more advanced, including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Intel Arc A380 is a dual-slot card requiring a 250 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin power connector, while the AMD card's power requirements are not specified in the data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is a decisive victory for the Intel Arc A380. The Intel card scores 38224, while the AMD Radeon HD 8870M scores 8462. This yields a deltaPct of 351.7% in favor of Intel. This is not a marginal improvement; it is a generational leap in compute throughput. The result highlights the massive difference in raw shader count, clock speed, and memory bandwidth, which are all heavily leveraged in OpenCL workloads.

This single result is the entire head-to-head dataset, and it shows a clean sweep for the Intel card with one win and zero for the AMD card. However, the lack of other head-to-head tests means that we cannot directly compare their performance in gaming or other graphics-specific workloads. The Intel Arc A380's own benchmark suite shows strong DirectX performance, with Passmark scores of 37 for DirectX 10, 38 for DirectX 11, 35 for DirectX 12, and 73 for DirectX 9. These scores, while not directly comparable to the AMD card, indicate that the Intel card is functional across all major API generations. The AMD card's absence from these tests in the provided data makes a direct comparison impossible, but its proximity in average benchmark score suggests that its legacy DirectX performance is still competitive, even if its compute capabilities are far behind.

FAQ

Q: Based on the average benchmark score, which GPU is faster overall?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has a higher average benchmark score of 8558 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 8870M's 8462. This puts the Intel card 1.1% ahead of the AMD card in the aggregate.

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A380 in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The Intel Arc A380 scores 38224 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD Radeon HD 8870M scores 8462. This represents a 351.7% advantage for the Intel card.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon HD 8870M support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The AMD Radeon HD 8870M has no ray tracing cores listed in its specifications. The Intel Arc A380 does have 8 ray tracing cores.

Q: What are the memory capacities of these two GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the AMD Radeon HD 8870M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The Intel card also has higher memory bandwidth at 186.0 GB/s versus 72.00 GB/s for the AMD card.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has a transistor density of 45.9M per mm² on a 6 nm process. The AMD Radeon HD 8870M has a density of 12.2M per mm² on a 28 nm process.

Q: Are these two GPUs considered close competitors in the benchmark database?

A: Yes. The AMD Radeon HD 8870M appears in the Intel Arc A380's nearest rivals list with a deltaPct of 1.1%. Conversely, the Intel Arc A380 appears in the AMD card's nearest rivals list with a deltaPct of -1.1%.

The Verdict

The data overwhelmingly favors the Intel Arc A380 for any modern workload. Its 351.7% lead in the Geekbench OpenCL compute test demonstrates a fundamental architectural advantage that cannot be overcome by the older AMD Radeon HD 8870M. The Intel card offers significantly more shading units, higher clock speeds, more memory, and faster memory bandwidth. It also includes modern features like hardware ray tracing and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, which are absent on the AMD card. For anyone considering these two for compute tasks, game development with modern APIs, or any application that leverages OpenCL or Vulkan, the Intel Arc A380 is the only logical choice based on the benchmark evidence.

The AMD Radeon HD 8870M's only claim to relevance is its proximity in the average benchmark score, sitting just 1.1% below the Intel card. This suggests that in legacy applications that do not use modern compute features or the latest graphics APIs, the AMD card can still provide comparable performance. However, this is a narrow niche. With only 2 GB of memory and a peak FP32 performance of 992.0 GFLOPS, it is severely limited for any modern task. The Intel Arc A380, with its 6 GB of memory and 4.198 TFLOPS of compute power, offers a more future-proof platform. The verdict is clear: the Intel Arc A380 is the superior product across nearly every measurable metric, and the AMD Radeon HD 8870M should only be considered for systems constrained to legacy software that predates the modern GPU era.