AMD Radeon R5 M335 vs AMD Radeon R5 M420 Comparison

# AMD Radeon R5 M420 vs AMD Radeon R5 M335: Mobile Graphics Face-Off

The mobile GPU segment is crowded with familiar names that often hide very different hardware underneath. The AMD Radeon R5 M420 and the AMD Radeon R5 M335 are two such parts. Both are aimed at the same slice of the laptop market, yet the database shows they are not twins. The R5 M420 is built on the Jet chip with the GCN 1.0 architecture, while the R5 M335 uses the Exo chip with GCN 1.0. Both are 28 nm parts manufactured at TSMC, but the transistor counts differ: 690 million for the M420 versus 690 million for the M335. Die size is 56 mm² for the M420 and 56 mm² for the M335, giving a transistor density of 12.3M / mm² for both. Despite this, benchmark results show a clear separation in performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the architecture of the AMD Radeon R5 M420?

A: The Radeon R5 M420 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture, built on the Jet chip. It is a 28 nm part manufactured by TSMC.

Q: How much memory does the Radeon R5 M335 have?

A: The R5 M335 has 2 GB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus. The memory clock runs at 900 MHz, yielding an effective 1800 Mbps, and the bandwidth is 14.40 GB/s.

Q: What is the pixel rate of the R5 M420?

A: The pixel rate is 8.240 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 20.60 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is 659.2 GFLOPS.

Q: Which API versions are supported by the R5 M335?

A: The DirectX API is supported at version 12 (11_1), OpenGL at 4.6, and Vulkan at 1.2.170.

Q: What is the production status and release date?

A: The M420 is marked as End-of-life. Its release date is 2015-10-20. The M335 came from the Solar System generation and was succeeded by Polaris Mobile.

Q: Which rival GPUs are closest in score?

A: In the geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon R5 M335 scores 4745. The nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R5 M255 at 4788 (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB at 4791 (0.8% ahead), and the NVIDIA Quadro P400 at 4684 (1.5% behind). The R5 M420, on the other hand, has the NVIDIA GeForce 830M, GT 745M, Quadro K2000, and the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 as its closest rivals.

Architecture Differences

The two chips differ in architecture, even if they share a common 28 nm process. The M420 is built on GCN 1.0 (the Jet core), while the M335 uses GCN 1.0 (the Exo core). The M420 carries 320 shading units and 20 texture mapping units with 8 ROPs. The M335 also has 320 shading units, 20 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. Both have 20 TMUs, but the recorded texture rate is higher on the M420: 17.00 GTexels/s versus 20.60 GTexels/s on the M335.

Memory configuration is identical on paper: 2 GB of DDR3, 64-bit bus. But the clock is different. The M420 memory runs at 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective), while the M335 memory runs at 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective). The result is a bandwidth gap: 16.00 GB/s on the M420, versus 14.40 GB/s on the M335. FP32 compute also scales with the clock: 544.0 GFLOPS for the M420, 659.2 GFLOPS for the M335.

The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x8 on both. Display output is portable device dependent in both cases. Neither card lists power connectors, and the suggested PSU is not specified in the database.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database has a direct comparison in the Geekbench OpenCL test. Here the M420 scored 3956, and the M335 scored 4745. The winner is the AMD Radeon R5 M335 with a 16.6% advantage. This is a single, but important, data point: the M5 M335 is meaningfully faster in this compute-oriented workload.

Looking at the broader picture, the average benchmark score tells the same story. The M420 has an average score of 3956. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce 830M at 3957, the NVIDIA GT 745M at 3953, the NVIDIA Quadro K2000 at 3964, and the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 at 3977. The deltas are tiny: 0.0% against the 830M, 0.1% against the GT 745M, 0.2% against the Quadro K2000, and 0.5% against the HD 6850 X2. The M335, by contrast, scores 4752. The nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R7 M445DX at 4727 (0.5% behind), the AMD Radeon R5 M255 at 4788 (0.7% ahead), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB at 4791 (0.8% ahead), and the NVIDIA Quadro P400 at 4684 (1.5% behind).

The M420 sits at the 23rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the M335 sits at the 28th percentile. In short, both of these are lower-half mobile parts, but the M335 has an edge in the recorded data.

Specification Differences

The table below lists only the fields in which the two parts differ, based on the comparison of the database.

| Field | AMD Radeon R5 M420 | AMD Radeon R5 M335 |

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

| Chip | Jet | Exo |

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | GCN 1.0 |

| Transistor count | 690 million | 690 million |

| Die size | 56 mm² | 56 mm² |

| Transistor density | 12.3M / mm² | 12.3M / mm² |

| Base clock | 780 MHz | (not listed) |

| Boost clock | 850 MHz | (not listed) |

| Memory clock | 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective) | 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective) |

| Pixel rate | 6.800 GP/s | 8.240 GP/s |

| Texture rate | 17.00 GT/s | 20.60 GT/s |

| FP32 | 544.0 GFLOPS | 659.2 GFLOPS |

| API Vulkan | 1.2.170 | 1.2.170 |

| Release date | 2016-05-14 | 2015-10-20 |

The table confirms that the main differences are not in the core architecture, but in the clocks and output rates. The R5 M335 has a higher fill rate, texture rate, and FP32 result, and a higher memory clock. The R5 M420 has a higher bus clock and a higher boost. The M335 also has a slightly newer API for DirectX: 12 (11_1) versus 12 (11_1), while OpenGL and Vulkan are the same.

The Verdict

Strictly from the recorded data, the AMD Radeon R5 M335 is the stronger part. It won the only head-to-head benchmark in the database by a 16.6% margin, and it has a higher average benchmark score (4752 vs 3956). It also has a higher pixel rate, texture rate, FP32 compute, and memory clock. The M420 is not without its advantages: it has a higher base and boost clock, a higher effective memory clock, and a newer release date (2016 versus 2015). But in performance terms, every measurable metric in the database favors the R5 M335.

The R5 M335 is for a user who wants the better compute performance in the entry-level mobile GPU segment. The R5 M420 is an option only if the specific features (higher core clock, newer release) are more important than the raw benchmark results. For the pure performance per the recorded data, the AMD Radeon R5 M335 is the one to choose.