AMD Radeon R7 M365X vs NVIDIA GeForce 840M Comparison

The AMD Radeon R7 M365X and NVIDIA GeForce 840M are two end-of-life mobile graphics solutions from the 28 nm era, both targeting entry-level laptops. Benchmark data from the database shows the AMD part holds a narrow but consistent lead over the NVIDIA part across the two recorded tests, with the overall average scores placing them in adjacent performance percentiles. The R7 M365X posts an average benchmark score of 5416, while the GeForce 840M trails slightly at 5322, a difference of roughly 1.8 percent that lands both in the lower third of all GPUs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results favor the AMD Radeon R7 M365X in both recorded tests, though the margins are slim. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD part scores 5939 against the NVIDIA’s 5764, a 3 percent advantage that represents the largest performance gap between the two. The Vulkan test tells a tighter story: AMD scores 4893, NVIDIA scores 4880, and the delta shrinks to just 0.3 percent — effectively a tie within the noise of mobile benchmarking. That 0.3 percent edge in Vulkan is negligible for real-world workloads, but it does mean the AMD card wins both head-to-head matchups, giving it a 2-0 record in the data.

Contextualizing these numbers against their nearest rivals clarifies where each card sits. The R7 M365X’s average score of 5416 places it 0.5 percent behind the AMD Radeon 610M (5444) and 1.1 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon R7 M445 (5358). It also edges out the Intel UHD Graphics P630 (5370) by 0.9 percent and the NVIDIA Quadro M4000 (5467) by 0.9 percent. The GeForce 840M, meanwhile, averages 5322, which puts it 0.7 percent behind the AMD Radeon R7 M445 (5358) and 0.3 percent behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (5308) — a peculiar grouping that underscores how clustered this performance tier really is. The 840M is 0.1 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (5317) and 0.7 percent above the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (5284). The takeaway: neither card dominates its peer group; both are mid-pack performers separated by single-digit percentage points from their closest competitors.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R7 M365X claims victory in both benchmark categories, but the nature of those wins differs. Its 3 percent OpenCL lead over the 840M is the more substantial of the two, suggesting AMD’s GCN 1.0 architecture holds a measurable advantage in general-purpose compute workloads as measured by Geekbench’s OpenCL test. That advantage may stem from its wider 128-bit memory bus and GDDR5 memory, which deliver 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth versus the 840M’s 16.02 GB/s — a fourfold difference in raw memory throughput that likely benefits memory-intensive compute tasks. The R7 M365X’s 384 shading units and 24 texture mapping units, paired with its 633.6 GFLOPS of FP32 performance, provide a solid foundation for OpenCL execution.

The NVIDIA GeForce 840M, despite losing both head-to-head tests, posts a higher peak in one critical metric: FP32 compute. Its 863.2 GFLOPS is 36 percent higher than the AMD’s 633.6 GFLOPS, and its pixel rate of 8.992 GPixel/s outpaces the R7 M365X’s 6.600 GPixel/s. Where the 840M falls short is memory bandwidth, and its 2 GB of DDR3 on a 64-bit bus is a severe bottleneck. The AMD card’s 1 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit interface provides four times the bandwidth, which appears to compensate for its lower raw compute in the benchmark results. For workloads that are bandwidth-limited, the AMD card wins; for those that are compute-limited on paper, the NVIDIA’s higher FP32 suggests it could pull ahead in scenarios the benchmarks do not capture.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent different architectural philosophies from their respective manufacturers, both built on the same 28 nm TSMC process node. AMD’s chip, codenamed Litho, uses the GCN 1.0 architecture and belongs to the “Gem System (R7 M300)” generation, released on May 4, 2015. It packs 950 million transistors into a 77 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per mm². NVIDIA’s counterpart, chip GM108S, is based on the Maxwell architecture from the GeForce 800M generation, released about 14 months earlier on March 11, 2014. It carries 1,020 million transistors on the same 77 mm² die, giving it a slightly higher density of 13.2 million per mm².

The core configurations differ in ways that matter. The AMD R7 M365X fields 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs, producing a texture rate of 19.80 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 6.600 GPixel/s. The NVIDIA 840M also has 384 shading units but only 16 TMUs and 8 ROPs, which lowers its texture rate to 17.98 GTexel/s while raising its pixel rate to 8.992 GPixel/s due to a higher clock. The 840M’s base clock is 1029 MHz with a boost of 1124 MHz, while the R7 M365X’s clocks are not listed in the database — only its memory clock of 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) is recorded. That clock advantage explains the NVIDIA’s higher FP32 and pixel rates.

Memory is where the two diverge most sharply. The AMD card uses 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, achieving 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 2 GB of DDR3 on a 64-bit bus, achieving just 16.02 GB/s — a quarter of the AMD’s bandwidth. Both use a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface. The 840M is rated at a 33 W TDP and is an integrated GPU (IGP) with no power connectors, while the R7 M365X’s TDP is not specified. On the API front, AMD supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170; NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, giving the NVIDIA part a newer Vulkan version despite being older overall.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 840M, with 863.2 GFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to the AMD Radeon R7 M365X’s 633.6 GFLOPS.

Q: Why does the AMD card win the OpenCL benchmark despite lower FP32?

A: The R7 M365X has 64.00 GB/s of memory bandwidth from its GDDR5 and 128-bit bus, versus the 840M’s 16.02 GB/s from DDR3 on a 64-bit bus. This fourfold bandwidth advantage likely offsets the NVIDIA’s higher compute in memory-sensitive OpenCL workloads.

Q: What are the memory capacities and types of each card?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M365X has 1024 MB of GDDR5, while the NVIDIA GeForce 840M has 2 GB of DDR3.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The AMD R7 M365X averages 5416, which is 0.9 percent ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000 (5467) and 1.1 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon R7 M445 (5358). The NVIDIA 840M averages 5322, which is 0.7 percent behind the R7 M445.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 840M, at 8.992 GPixel/s, compared to the AMD Radeon R7 M365X’s 6.600 GPixel/s.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The NVIDIA 840M has 1,020 million transistors on a 77 mm² die (13.2M/mm² density), while the AMD R7 M365X has 950 million transistors on the same 77 mm² die (12.3M/mm² density).

The Verdict

The data points to a clear but narrow winner: the AMD Radeon R7 M365X takes both head-to-head benchmarks and holds a higher average score (5416 vs. 5322), placing it in the 32nd percentile versus the 840M’s 31st. Its memory subsystem — 64.00 GB/s of GDDR5 bandwidth on a 128-bit bus — is the decisive factor, providing a fourfold bandwidth advantage that lets it outperform the NVIDIA part in both OpenCL and Vulkan tests despite the 840M’s 36 percent higher FP32 output. The AMD card’s 2-0 record in winsA/winsB confirms this consistency.

The NVIDIA GeForce 840M, however, is not without merit. Its 863.2 GFLOPS FP32 and 8.992 GPixel/s pixel rate are meaningfully higher than the AMD’s 633.6 GFLOPS and 6.600 GPixel/s, and its 2 GB of memory doubles the AMD’s 1 GB capacity. For users who prioritize compute headroom on paper or need more VRAM for larger textures, the 840M might serve better in specific scenarios — but the benchmark data does not validate that preference. The 840M’s 16.02 GB/s bandwidth is a severe constraint, and its nearest rivals show it sitting 0.7 percent below the R7 M445 (5358), a card the AMD R7 M365X beats by 1.1 percent.

For a buyer choosing strictly on measured performance, the AMD Radeon R7 M365X is the safer pick. It wins the only two tests recorded, posts a higher average score (5416 vs. 5322), and sits in a slightly higher percentile (32 vs. 31). The 840M’s advantages are theoretical — higher clocks, higher FP32, higher pixel rate — but they do not translate into benchmark victories. The data shows the AMD card’s memory architecture is the differentiator, and in the real-world workloads these tests represent, bandwidth beats brute compute. If the choice is between these two end-of-life mobile GPUs, the R7 M365X delivers the better measured result, even if the margin is only 3 percent in its strongest test and under a percent in the other.