AMD Radeon R7 M370 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison recorded between the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M and the AMD Radeon R7 M370 is in Geekbench OpenCL, and the result is decisive. The AMD Radeon R7 M370 scores 7063, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M scores 5622, giving the AMD part a 20.4% lead in that workload. This is the sole head-to-head benchmark in the database, and it flips the expectation set by the two GPUs' hardware specifications.

Looking at the broader average benchmark scores, the two parts sit close together in the overall rankings. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M averages 8040 across all recorded benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon R7 M370 averages 6764. That is a gap of roughly 18.9% in favor of the NVIDIA part when all tests are considered, but the only test where both were measured under identical conditions favors AMD. The OpenCL result is particularly notable because it is not a narrow margin: a 20.4% difference is substantial in GPU terms, and it suggests that the AMD architecture handles that specific compute workload more efficiently despite having far fewer shading units and less memory bandwidth on paper.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M also has a Geekbench Metal score of 10458, a benchmark that the AMD Radeon R7 M370 does not appear in. The AMD part has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 6465, a test that the NVIDIA part does not appear in. This means each GPU claims one exclusive benchmark win, but those results cannot be directly compared since they use different APIs and are not head-to-head measurements.

The percentile rankings tell a similar story of two mid-pack mobile GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M sits at the 42nd percentile among all GPUs in the database, while the AMD Radeon R7 M370 sits at the 38th percentile. The NVIDIA part's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro P5000 at 8039 (0% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti at 8053 (0.2% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost at 8067 (0.3% behind), and the NVIDIA GRID K2 at 8080 (0.5% behind). These deltas are tiny, meaning the GTX 880M is clustered with a group of desktop and professional cards that score nearly identically in the database's aggregate.

The AMD Radeon R7 M370's nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro M5100 at 6830 (1% ahead of the R7 M370), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1010 at 6698 (1% behind), the AMD Radeon R7 M460 at 6612 (2.3% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M at 6946 (2.6% ahead). The R7 M370 sits in a different performance cluster, one that is roughly 12 to 16% below the GTX 880M's neighborhood in aggregate terms.

When interpreting the OpenCL head-to-head, it is important to note that the GTX 880M's score of 5622 is lower than its own average benchmark score of 8040, while the R7 M370's OpenCL score of 7063 is slightly higher than its average of 6764. This suggests that OpenCL is a relative weakness for the NVIDIA part and a relative strength for the AMD part, rather than the result reflecting a general performance hierarchy reversal.

The Verdict

The data supports a split verdict based on workload type. For users running OpenCL compute tasks, the AMD Radeon R7 M370 is the clear choice, as it leads by 20.4% in the only direct comparison available. For users whose workloads resemble the broader benchmark mix reflected in the average scores, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M holds the advantage, with an 8040 average versus 6764.

The GTX 880M also offers a much stronger feature set on paper, which matters for certain use cases. It has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, versus 2 GB on a 128-bit bus for the R7 M370. It has 1536 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, compared to 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs for the AMD part. Its pixel rate is 31.78 GPixel/s versus 7.680 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 127.1 GTexel/s versus 23.04 GTexel/s. Its FP32 throughput is 3.050 TFLOPS versus 737.3 GFLOPS.

Yet the benchmark data shows that raw specifications do not always translate into wins in every API. The OpenCL result is a reminder that driver optimization and architecture efficiency can overcome hardware disadvantages in specific workloads. The R7 M370's GCN 1.0 architecture, despite being older in design lineage, clearly handles OpenCL tasks better than the GTX 880M's Kepler architecture does.

The GTX 880M's 42nd percentile versus the R7 M370's 38th percentile reinforces the conclusion that the NVIDIA part is the stronger overall GPU, but the margin is not enormous. The direct head-to-head win for AMD complicates any simple "buy NVIDIA" verdict. A neutral reading of the data is: the GTX 880M wins on aggregate performance and most hardware metrics, while the R7 M370 wins the one test where both were measured together.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M is built on the Kepler architecture using the GK104 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 28 nm process. The die measures 294 mm² and contains 3,540 million transistors, giving a transistor density of 12.0 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon R7 M370 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture with the Litho chip, also manufactured by TSMC on 28 nm. Its die is much smaller at 77 mm², with 950 million transistors and a slightly higher transistor density of 12.3 million per square millimeter.

The two architectures differ significantly in compute organization. Kepler was designed by NVIDIA with a focus on gaming and general-purpose compute through CUDA cores, while GCN 1.0 was AMD's first unified shader architecture designed for compute-heavy workloads. The R7 M370's OpenCL win, despite its much smaller die and fewer resources, aligns with GCN's reputation for compute efficiency, though the database does not provide architectural commentary beyond the specifications.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12, but with different feature levels. The GTX 880M lists DirectX 12 (11_0), while the R7 M370 lists DirectX 12 (11_1). OpenGL support is identical at 4.6 for both. Vulkan support differs slightly: the GTX 880M lists Vulkan 1.2.175, and the R7 M370 lists Vulkan 1.2.170. These are minor version differences that are unlikely to affect real-world compatibility in most applications.

Neither GPU has ray tracing cores or tensor cores. Both are end-of-life products, with the GTX 880M released on March 11, 2014, and the R7 M370 released on May 4, 2015. The GTX 880M's predecessor is the GeForce 700M series and its successor is the GeForce 900M series. The R7 M370's predecessor is listed as "Solar System and its successor as Polaris Mobile.

Specification Differences

The most obvious specification difference is memory. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M comes with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, a 256-bit bus width, and 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon R7 M370 has 49% less memory capacity, specifically 2 GB, with a 128-bit bus and 57.60 GB/s of bandwidth. That bandwidth difference is substantial and affects all memory-bound workloads.

Clock speeds are closer than the memory specs suggest. The GTX 880M runs at a base clock of 954 MHz with a boost of 993 MHz, while the R7 M370 runs at 875 MHz base and 960 MHz boost. The memory clock differs more: the GTX 880M runs at 1250 MHz with 5 Gbps effective, while the R7 M370 runs at 900 MHz with 3.6 Gbps effective.

The compute unit counts show a wide gap. The GTX 880M has 1536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The R7 M370 has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. This translates into pixel rate of 31.78 GPixel/s versus 7.680 GPixel/s, texture rate of 127.1 GTexel/s versus 23.04 GTexel/s, and FP32 of 3.050 TFLOPS versus 737.3 GFLOPS. In every compute metric, the GTX 880M leads by roughly 4x.

Power and physical configuration differ as well. The GTX 880M has a TDP of 122 W and uses an MXM Module slot with an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface and no power connectors. The R7 M370 has no recorded TDP, no slot width, no power connector data, and uses a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface. The GTX 880M's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," while the R7 M370 has no display output data.

The GTX 880M's memory bandwidth advantage of 160.0 GB/s versus 57.60 GB/s is more than 2.7x, which explains why it wins aggregate benchmarks despite losing the OpenCL head-to-head. The R7 M370 compensates with lower power draw and a smaller physical footprint, though exact figures for those are not recorded for the AMD part.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the only direct head-to-head benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M370 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 7063 versus the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M's 5622, a 20.4% lead.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M averages 8040 across all recorded benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon R7 M370 averages 6764.

Q: How much memory does each GPU have?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, while the AMD Radeon R7 M370 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M has 3.050 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to 737.3 GFLOPS for the AMD Radeon R7 M370.

Q: What are the percentile rankings of these GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M is at the 42nd percentile among all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon R7 M370 is at the 38th percentile.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same APIs?

A: Both support OpenGL 4.6 and DirectX 12, but the GTX 880M supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175, while the R7 M370 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R7 M370 wins in OpenCL compute workloads, as demonstrated by its 20.4% head-to-head win in Geekbench OpenCL and its Vulkan score of 6465, which is a test the GTX 880M does not appear in. For users running compute workloads that rely on OpenCL or Vulkan, the R7 M370 is the stronger choice according to the recorded data.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M wins in overall aggregate performance, with an 8040 average versus 6764, and in every hardware compute metric: shading units, TMUs, ROPs, pixel rate, texture rate, FP32, memory size, memory bus width, and memory bandwidth. It also has a Geekbench Metal score of 10458, which is a benchmark the R7 M370 does not appear in. Users whose workloads align with Metal or who need large memory capacity for texture-heavy applications would prefer the GTX 880M.

The GTX 880M's 8 GB memory capacity and 160.0 GB/s bandwidth make it better suited for tasks that require large framebuffers or high-bandwidth data movement, such as high-resolution gaming or compute tasks with large datasets. The R7 M370's 2 GB capacity and 57.60 GB/s bandwidth are more limited, but its OpenCL efficiency suggests it can deliver competitive compute performance in workloads that fit within its memory constraints.

The production status for both is end-of-life, so neither is a future-proof investment. The GTX 880M's higher TDP of 122 W versus the R7 M370's unrecorded TDP suggests the AMD part may be more power-efficient, though the database does not provide a direct power consumption comparison. For mobile systems where battery life and heat are primary concerns, the R7 M370's smaller die and lower power footprint could be an advantage, but the data does not quantify this directly.

In summary, the GTX 880M is the stronger GPU by most metrics and the R7 M370 is the stronger GPU in the one direct comparison available. The choice depends entirely on whether the user's primary workload is OpenCL compute or general graphics and compute.