AMD Radeon R5 M430 vs NVIDIA GeForce 930M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data shows a clear overall victory for the AMD Radeon R5 M430, which wins both of the two head-to-head tests. The margin of victory is not uniform across the workloads, however, and the split between OpenCL and Vulkan results reveals a substantial difference in how these two mobile GPUs scale with different application programming interfaces.

In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon R5 M430 scores 5152 against the NVIDIA GeForce 930M's 5046. That is a 2.1% advantage for the AMD part. This is a narrow margin, well within the sort of run-to-run variation one might expect from mobile graphics parts, but it is a win nonetheless. The AMD part's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 5018, while the NVIDIA part averages 4388, so the OpenCL result is closer to parity than the overall averages might suggest.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a very different story. Here the AMD Radeon R5 M430 scores 4884, while the NVIDIA GeForce 930M manages only 3729. That is a 31% advantage for the AMD part, a massive gap in performance under the Vulkan API. This result is the single largest differentiator between the two products and drives most of the overall average score difference. The AMD part's Vulkan score is actually quite close to its OpenCL score, while the NVIDIA part's Vulkan score is substantially lower than its OpenCL score, indicating that the GeForce 930M does not scale as well into the Vulkan workload.

Looking at the nearest rival data for each product provides additional context. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 sits at the 30th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its closest rivals include the AMD FirePro W4170M with an average score of 5034, which is 0.3% behind the R5 M430, and the AMD Radeon R7 M340 with an average score of 5063, which is 0.9% ahead. The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics (4998) and NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (4979) trail by 0.4% and 0.8% respectively. The R5 M430 is therefore positioned in a tightly packed cluster of mid-range mobile and workstation parts, all within roughly one percentage point of each other.

The NVIDIA GeForce 930M, by contrast, sits at the 26th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M with an average score of 4411 (0.5% ahead), the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 with 4360 (0.7% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 with 4335 (1.2% behind). The presence of the RTX 4070 GDDR6 in this list is curious, but the data is the data: the 930M's average score is only 1.2% above that desktop-class part's recorded average. The AMD FirePro W2100 trails by 2.2%. The 930M is thus clustered with a somewhat more eclectic set of rivals, but the key takeaway is that its average score of 4388 is substantially lower than the R5 M430's 5018.

The head-to-head record is unambiguous: 2 wins for the AMD Radeon R5 M430, 0 wins for the NVIDIA GeForce 930M. The only question that remains is whether the 2.1% OpenCL margin or the 31% Vulkan margin better represents the typical user experience, which depends heavily on the software environment.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M430 wins with a score of 5152 against the NVIDIA GeForce 930M's 5046, a 2.1% advantage.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap between the two?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M430 scores 4884 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the NVIDIA GeForce 930M scores 3729. The AMD part leads by 31%.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M430 has an average benchmark score of 5018 across all recorded tests. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M has an average benchmark score of 4388.

Q: How do the two GPUs rank among all GPUs in the database?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M430 sits at the 30th percentile among all GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M sits at the 26th percentile.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 930M has 384 shading units, while the AMD Radeon R5 M430 has 320 shading units.

Q: Which GPU supports a higher DirectX version?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M430 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the NVIDIA GeForce 930M supports DirectX 12 (11_0).

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R5 M430 wins in every recorded benchmark category, so the use-case split is not about which GPU wins a given workload, but rather about the magnitude of the margin and what that implies for different types of users.

For users whose software relies primarily on Vulkan, the AMD Radeon R5 M430 is the clear choice. The 31% lead in the Geekbench Vulkan test is the dominant performance gap in this comparison. This margin is large enough to be perceptible in actual applications that use the Vulkan API, and it dwarfs the differences seen in the OpenCL test. The AMD part's Vulkan score of 4884 is also much closer to its OpenCL score of 5152, suggesting that the R5 M430 delivers more consistent performance across both APIs.

For users who work primarily with OpenCL-based applications, the choice is still the AMD Radeon R5 M430, but the margin is much thinner. The 2.1% lead in the Geekbench OpenCL test means that real-world differences would be minor in most OpenCL workloads. The AMD Radeon R5 M430's nearest rivals in the database, the AMD FirePro W4170M and the AMD Radeon R7 M340, are within a percentage point of its average score, so the R5 M430 is not a standout in its class, it simply edges out the competition.

The NVIDIA GeForce 930M does not win any recorded benchmark category. Its strongest result is in OpenCL, where it comes within 2.1% of the AMD part, but it still loses. Its Vulkan result is much weaker in relative terms, and its average benchmark score of 4388 places it in a lower percentile bracket. The nearest rival data for the 930M includes the NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M, which is 0.5% faster on average, and the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, which is 0.7% slower, so the 930M is competitive with its immediate peers even if it loses to the R5 M430.

Users who value API breadth might note that the NVIDIA GeForce 930M supports Vulkan 1.4, a higher version than the AMD part's Vulkan 1.2.170, but the recorded Vulkan benchmark score does not favor the NVIDIA part despite that version advantage.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification category. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 uses a chip codenamed Jet with a GCN 1.0 architecture, while the NVIDIA GeForce 930M uses a chip codenamed GM108S with a Maxwell architecture. Both are built on a 28 nm process at TSMC, so the manufacturing node is identical.

The transistor counts differ significantly. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M packs 1,020 million transistors on a 77 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 13.2M per mm². The AMD Radeon R5 M430 has 690 million transistors on a 56 mm² die, for a density of 12.3M per mm². The NVIDIA part is therefore both larger in die area and denser in transistor packing.

Clock speeds favor the AMD part. The R5 M430 has a base clock of 780 MHz and a boost clock of 855 MHz. The GeForce 930M has a base clock of 549 MHz and a boost clock of 549 MHz, meaning it does not boost at all. The memory clocks also differ: the AMD part runs at 1000 MHz with 2 Gbps effective, while the NVIDIA part runs at 800 MHz with 1600 Mbps effective.

Memory configuration is another clear differentiator. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 comes with 4 GB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus, delivering 16.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M comes with 2 GB of DDR3 memory, also on a 64-bit bus, delivering 12.80 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD part has twice the memory capacity and 25% more bandwidth.

The compute unit counts also differ. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M has 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 has 320 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs. The NVIDIA part has more shading units and TMUs, but the AMD part has higher clock speeds, which explains the benchmark results.

Pixel and texture rates favor the AMD part. The R5 M430 achieves 6.840 GPixel/s and 17.10 GTexel/s. The GeForce 930M achieves 4.392 GPixel/s and 13.18 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 547.2 GFLOPS for the AMD part and 421.6 GFLOPS for the NVIDIA part.

The power situation differs in that the NVIDIA GeForce 930M has a recorded TDP of 33 W, while the AMD Radeon R5 M430 has no TDP listed in the database. Both are IGP slot width parts with portable-device-dependent display outputs, and both use a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface. The NVIDIA part lists no power connectors, while the AMD part has no power connector data at all.

Architecture Differences

The architectural story is one of two completely different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 is built on GCN 1.0, AMD's first-generation Graphics Core Next architecture, and belongs to the Gem System generation within the R5 M400 series. Its predecessor is listed as Solar System and its successor is Polaris Mobile. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M is built on NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture, belongs to the GeForce 900M generation, and sits between the GeForce 800M and GeForce 10 Mobile in NVIDIA's lineup.

Both parts use the same 28 nm TSMC process, but the NVIDIA chip is larger and more transistor-dense. The 1,020 million transistors in the GM108S die represent a 48% higher transistor count than the 690 million in the AMD Jet chip. The NVIDIA part also uses those transistors to implement more shading units (384 vs. 320) and more texture units (24 vs. 20), but the AMD part's higher clocks allow it to convert its smaller compute configuration into higher theoretical throughput.

The memory subsystem differs in capacity but not in bus width. Both use a 64-bit DDR3 interface, but the AMD part pairs it with 4 GB and a 1000 MHz memory clock, while the NVIDIA part uses 2 GB at 800 MHz. The resulting bandwidth difference, 16.00 GB/s vs. 12.80 GB/s, gives the AMD part a 25% memory bandwidth advantage that likely contributes to its benchmark wins.

The API support reveals a subtle split. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA part has the newer Vulkan version, but the AMD part has a slightly higher DirectX feature level. Neither part supports hardware ray tracing or tensor cores, as those fields are null for both.

The production status for both parts is end-of-life, and the NVIDIA GeForce 930M has a recorded release date of March 12, 2015. The AMD part has no release date in the database. Both are IGP parts, meaning they are integrated into a portable device rather than sold as discrete add-in cards, and both have display outputs that are portable-device dependent.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is decisive: the AMD Radeon R5 M430 outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce 930M in every recorded test. The overall win count is 2 to 0, and the average benchmark score of 5018 vs. 4388 puts the AMD part 14.4% ahead on average. The AMD part also holds a higher percentile ranking at 30th vs. 26th among all GPUs.

The choice between these two depends on the workload. Users running Vulkan-based applications should strongly prefer the AMD Radeon R5 M430, as its 31% lead in the Geekbench Vulkan test is the largest performance gap in this comparison. The AMD part also offers twice the memory capacity (4 GB vs. 2 GB) and higher memory bandwidth (16.00 GB/s vs. 12.80 GB/s), which could matter for texture-heavy workloads or larger datasets.

Users running OpenCL-based applications face a closer call. The AMD part still wins, but by only 2.1%, so the practical difference is minor. The NVIDIA GeForce 930M does have more shading units (384 vs. 320) and a higher Vulkan API version (1.4 vs. 1.2.170), but those advantages do not translate into benchmark wins in the recorded data.

The NVIDIA GeForce 930M is best suited for users who already have it and do not require Vulkan performance, or for those comparing it against its immediate peers, where it holds its own within a percentage point of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M and the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200. But against the AMD Radeon R5 M430 specifically, the data does not favor the NVIDIA part in any category. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 is the recommended pick based strictly on the recorded benchmark performance, memory capacity, and bandwidth figures.