AMD Radeon R7 M465 vs NVIDIA GeForce 930A Comparison

The AMD Radeon R7 M465 and NVIDIA GeForce 930A are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions aimed at the entry-level segment of the laptop market. The recorded data shows a clear, albeit narrow, overall victory for the AMD part, driven entirely by its performance in the Geekbench OpenCL test. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 scores 5841 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce 930A trails with 5317 points. This 9.9% lead in the sole benchmark recorded in the database gives the AMD product a definitive win in the head-to-head comparison.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, which measures general-purpose compute performance across a variety of workloads. In this test, the AMD Radeon R7 M465 outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce 930A with a score of 5841 versus 5317, a difference of 9.9%. This is a significant margin for two parts that are otherwise very similar in their core specifications, and it suggests that the AMD architecture is more efficient at translating its raw resources into actual compute throughput in this specific workload.

Looking at the context provided by their respective rivals, the AMD R7 M465’s score of 5841 places it in a competitive position. It is a mere 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon R5 M435 (5859) and 1.5% behind the Intel UHD Graphics 730 (5929). More notably, it outperforms the older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (5731) by 1.9%, a desktop card from a previous generation. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A, with its 5317 points, sits in a similar tier relative to its own rivals. It is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 840M (5322), being just 0.1% behind, and sits just ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (5308) by 0.2%, an anomaly that highlights the variability in benchmark results for mobile parts.

The data indicates that while both GPUs are in the same performance class, the AMD part has a tangible edge in this compute benchmark. The 9.9% delta is consistent and not a marginal statistical fluke. The performance gap is likely enough to be noticeable in applications that are heavily dependent on OpenCL compute, such as certain video editing filters, physics simulations, or data processing tasks. For pure gaming workloads, the data does not provide a direct comparison, so the 9.9% lead in OpenCL cannot be directly extrapolated to frame rates, but it does establish the AMD R7 M465 as the more capable compute processor of the two.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the AMD Radeon R7 M465 is the clear winner in the compute performance category, specifically in the Geekbench OpenCL test. This suggests a potential advantage in any application that leverages OpenCL for general-purpose GPU computing. This could include tasks like video transcoding with certain software, image processing, or even some scientific and engineering applications that use OpenCL for acceleration. The higher bandwidth of the AMD part, at 36.00 GB/s compared to the NVIDIA's 16.02 GB/s, further supports this advantage, as compute workloads often require rapid data movement.

The NVIDIA GeForce 930A, while losing the compute benchmark, does not have a single recorded benchmark win in the database. Therefore, there is no metric in our measurements where it comes out ahead. Its specifications, however, hint at its strengths in a different domain. Its core clock is substantially higher, with a base of 928 MHz and a boost of 941 MHz compared to the AMD's 730 MHz base and 1024 MHz boost. While the AMD has a higher peak boost clock, the NVIDIA maintains a much higher sustained base clock. This could translate to more consistent performance in workloads that do not scale perfectly with memory bandwidth, but the database does not contain the data to confirm this. Without a benchmark win, the 930A cannot be said to have a winning area in the recorded data.

The use-case split is therefore one-sided in favor of the AMD Radeon R7 M465. It wins the only measurable performance arena. For a user deciding between these two based on the database, the AMD part is the one that offers a proven performance advantage in compute tasks. The NVIDIA part’s potential strengths in other areas, such as power efficiency, are not reflected in the benchmark scores and cannot be used to claim a win in any category.

The Verdict

The data points to a single, unambiguous conclusion: the AMD Radeon R7 M465 is the faster GPU in this comparison. Its 9.9% lead in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark is the sole performance metric available, and it is a decisive one. For any user whose primary concern is raw compute performance, the AMD Radeon R7 M465 is the superior choice. The benchmark results show it is not only faster than the 930A but also competitive with, and in some cases faster than, other parts in its class, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

The NVIDIA GeForce 930A, while not a poor performer when compared to its own nearest rivals, is simply outmatched by the AMD R7 M465 in the recorded data. Its score of 5317 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 840M, but it falls short of the AMD part's score. The database does not provide any countervailing metric where the 930A wins. Therefore, the verdict is clear: choose the AMD Radeon R7 M465 for its proven performance advantage. The 930A could be considered only if other factors outside the benchmarks, such as specific driver support or platform availability, were a deciding factor, but on pure performance, the AMD part is the winner.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M465 is faster, scoring 5841 points compared to the NVIDIA GeForce 930A's 5317 points.

Q: What is the performance difference between the two GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M465 has a 9.9% higher score in the Geekbench OpenCL test than the NVIDIA GeForce 930A.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon R7 M465 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is 1.9% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (5731 points) and 0.3% slower than the AMD Radeon R5 M435 (5859 points).

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce 930A compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 840M, being only 0.1% slower (5322 points), and it is 0.2% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (5308 points).

Q: Which GPU has a higher memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M465 has a memory bandwidth of 36.00 GB/s, while the NVIDIA GeForce 930A has a bandwidth of 16.02 GB/s.

Q: Do both GPUs have the same number of shading units?

A: Yes, both the AMD Radeon R7 M465 and the NVIDIA GeForce 930A have 384 shading units.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 is based on the GCN 3.0 architecture, using a chip codenamed Topaz. This is a part of the "Gem System (R7 M400)" generation. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce 930A uses the Maxwell architecture, built around the GM108 chip, and is part of the GeForce 900A generation. This architectural split is a primary reason for the performance differences observed in the benchmarks, as each company has a different approach to shader and compute core design.

The manufacturing process is the same for both, with each being fabricated on a 28 nm node by TSMC. However, the physical implementation differs. The AMD chip is larger, with a die size of 125 mm² and containing 1,550 million transistors, resulting in a transistor density of 12.4 million per mm². The NVIDIA chip is significantly smaller at 77 mm², holding 1,020 million transistors. This gives the NVIDIA chip a higher transistor density of 13.2 million per mm², indicating a more compact design. The AMD GPU is a successor to the "Solar System" generation and was itself succeeded by "Polaris Mobile", while the NVIDIA GPU's predecessor was the GeForce 800A and it has no direct successor in the database.

Another key difference lies in the feature set. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A also supports DirectX 12, but only at the 11_0 feature level, and it lists support for Vulkan 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The higher Vulkan version for NVIDIA suggests a more recent driver and potentially better support for newer Vulkan features, but the AMD part has a higher DirectX feature level, which could be relevant for certain modern game titles. Furthermore, the AMD part supports FP16 computation at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while the NVIDIA part has no FP16 data recorded, indicating a potential compute advantage for AMD in workloads that can use half-precision arithmetic.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for the two GPUs reveal several key differences beyond their architectures. The clock speeds are configured very differently. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 has a base clock of 730 MHz and a boost clock of 1024 MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A has a much higher base clock of 928 MHz but a lower boost clock of 941 MHz. This shows that the AMD part is designed to ramp up to higher frequencies under load, while the NVIDIA part maintains a more consistent, but lower peak, clock speed.

The most significant hardware difference is in the memory subsystem. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 64-bit bus, achieving a bandwidth of 36.00 GB/s. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A also has 2 GB of memory on a 64-bit bus, but it uses DDR3 memory, which results in a much lower bandwidth of just 16.02 GB/s. This is a more than 2x difference in memory bandwidth and is a major factor in the AMD part's superior compute performance. The memory clocks also reflect this, with the AMD running at 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective) versus the NVIDIA's 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective).

Other areas of difference include the TDP and physical form factor. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A has a recorded TDP of 33 W and is classified as an IGP, meaning it is likely integrated into the motherboard or a low-power mobile design. It has no power connectors, relying on the motherboard for power. The AMD Radeon R7 M465 does not have a recorded TDP, slot width, or power connector information in the database. The NVIDIA part also lists its display outputs as "Portable Device Dependent," while no such information is available for the AMD part. Both use a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface. Finally, the release dates differ, with the NVIDIA GeForce 930A launching on 2015-03-12, over a year before the AMD Radeon R7 M465, which launched on 2016-05-14.