GPU Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce 820A and AMD Radeon RX 7400 represent two distant points in GPU evolution, separated by a decade of architectural progress. The 820A is an end-of-life, 28 nm integrated-class part from 2014, while the RX 7400 is a 2025 discrete GPU built on 6 nm RDNA 3.0. Benchmark data shows the RX 7400 holds a dominant lead in raw compute and DirectX performance, yet the 820A posts a higher average benchmark score in the Geekbench OpenCL test. This creates a split verdict: the RX 7400 is the clear choice for modern gaming and compute workloads, while the 820A only makes sense for legacy, low-power embedded or portable systems where its specific test result happens to be relevant.

The Verdict

The data presents an unusual case where the older, weaker-on-paper GPU wins the only shared benchmark category, even though its overall percentile ranking is lower. The GeForce 820A scores 2,983 in Geekbench OpenCL, which places it at the 19th percentile of all GPUs. The Radeon RX 7400, despite having a much higher PassMark G3D score of 11,897, lands at the 17th percentile overall, with an average benchmark score of 2,467 across all its tests. The 820A edges out the RX 7400 in average score by roughly 21% (2,983 vs 2,467), but this is misleading because the RX 7400’s average is dragged down by low DirectX 9/10/11/12 PassMark scores ranging from 44 to 176.

For gaming and modern API workloads, the RX 7400 is overwhelmingly superior. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,103 and PassMark G3D score of 11,897 dwarf anything the 820A can produce. The 820A has no corresponding modern benchmark scores in the data, so its only win is in OpenCL compute, where it beats the RX 7400’s nearest rival (AMD Radeon 8040S) by 1.1% and the NVIDIA GeForce 710M by 1.4%. The verdict is clear: choose the RX 7400 for any task involving DirectX 12, Vulkan, or heavy compute. Choose the 820A only if you need a 15 W IGP with no power connectors and are targeting OpenCL-based legacy applications, where its 2,983 score outpaces the RX 7400’s average.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 820A has an average score of 2,983, while the AMD Radeon RX 7400 averages 2,467 across its benchmark suite. This puts the 820A ahead by about 21%, but the RX 7400’s average is lowered by its low DirectX PassMark scores.

Q: How do the two compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The RX 7400 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and scores 1,103 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The 820A only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no recorded DX12 benchmark scores in the data.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The 820A has 1 GB of DDR3 on a 64-bit bus with 16.02 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7400 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is roughly 18 times higher bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has better compute performance?

A: The RX 7400 delivers 16.49 TFLOPS FP32 and 32.97 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The 820A delivers 240.0 GFLOPS FP32, making the RX 7400 about 68 times faster in FP32 compute.

Q: Are these GPUs in the same performance percentile?

A: No. The 820A sits at the 19th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 7400 sits at the 17th percentile. Despite the RX 7400’s massive raw power advantage, its percentile ranking is slightly lower due to its mixed benchmark results.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The 820A has a 15 W TDP and is an IGP with no power connectors. The RX 7400 has a 43 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, one 6-pin power connector, and a suggested 200 W PSU.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures separated by three generations. The 820A uses Fermi 2.0 architecture on the GF117 chip, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This chip contains 585 million transistors on a 116 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 5.0 million per mm². The Fermi 2.0 architecture dates to a period before dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores, and the 820A’s API support reflects this: it tops out at DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan support listed.

The RX 7400 uses RDNA 3.0 architecture on the Navi 33 chip, codenamed Hotpink Bonefish, manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. This chip packs 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, achieving a density of 65.2 million per mm², over 13 times denser than the 820A. RDNA 3.0 brings modern features including 28 ray tracing cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), and Vulkan 1.4 support. The RX 7400 also supports FP16 compute at a 2:1 ratio (32.97 TFLOPS), while the 820A has no FP16 capability listed. The architectural gap is stark: the RX 7400’s 1,792 shading units and 112 texture mapping units dwarf the 820A’s 96 shading units and 16 TMUs, and the RX 7400’s 64 ROPs are eight times the 820A’s 8 ROPs.

Specification Differences

The specification table shows nearly every major field differs between these two GPUs. The 820A has no base or boost clock listed, only a memory clock of 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The RX 7400 has a base clock of 1452 MHz, a boost clock of 2300 MHz, and a game clock of 2200 MHz, with memory at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). Memory capacity differs by 8x: 1 GB DDR3 on the 820A versus 8 GB GDDR6 on the RX 7400. The bus width doubles from 64-bit to 128-bit, and bandwidth jumps from 16.02 GB/s to 288.0 GB/s.

Pixel rate and texture rate also differ enormously: the 820A achieves 2.500 GPixel/s and 10.00 GTexel/s, while the RX 7400 achieves 147.2 GPixel/s and 257.6 GTexel/s. The RX 7400’s FP32 throughput of 16.49 TFLOPS is roughly 68 times the 820A’s 240.0 GFLOPS. Power consumption rises from 15 W (IGP, no connectors) to 43 W (dual-slot, 1x 6-pin, 200 W PSU recommended). The bus interface advances from PCIe 2.0 x16 to PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs change from “Portable Device Dependent” on the 820A to 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1 on the RX 7400. The 820A is marked end-of-life with a 2014 release date, while the RX 7400 has a 2025 release date with no production status listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark list is empty, meaning there are no directly comparable tests run on both GPUs. Instead, the data provides separate benchmark suites for each. The 820A has one benchmark: Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 2,983. The RX 7400 has eight benchmarks: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (1,103), PassMark DirectX 10 (59), DirectX 11 (97), DirectX 12 (44), DirectX 9 (176), G2D (1,209), G3D (11,897), and GPU Compute (5,152).

Interpreting these numbers requires caution. The 820A’s single OpenCL score of 2,983 places it just above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M (2,967, +0.5%) and the GTX 750 Ti (2,953, +1%). The RX 7400’s average score of 2,467 places it just above the AMD Radeon 8040S (2,440, +1.1%) and NVIDIA GeForce 710M (2,433, +1.4%). The RX 7400’s PassMark G3D score of 11,897 shows its true gaming potential, but its DirectX 9/10/11/12 scores are remarkably low (44-176), which suggests these tests are not representative of its modern workload performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,103 is far more indicative of its DirectX 12 capability. The RX 7400’s GPU Compute score of 5,152 is nearly double the 820A’s OpenCL score, though the different test methodologies prevent a direct comparison.

Where Each One Wins

The 820A wins in exactly one domain based on the data: Geekbench OpenCL compute. Its score of 2,983 exceeds the RX 7400’s average of 2,467, and it sits at a higher percentile (19th vs 17th). This makes it a niche pick for OpenCL-focused legacy applications where the test specifically rewards the Fermi 2.0 architecture’s compute path. The 820A also wins on power efficiency in absolute terms, drawing only 15 W versus 43 W, and it requires no power connectors or PSU upgrade, making it suitable for ultra-low-power embedded designs. Its IGP form factor and portable-device-dependent outputs further cement its role in compact, battery-driven systems.

The RX 7400 wins everywhere else. Its PassMark G3D score of 11,897 is over four times the 820A’s entire average score, indicating vastly superior rasterization performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,103 demonstrates modern DirectX 12 capability, while the 820A cannot run such workloads at comparable levels. The RX 7400’s GPU Compute score of 5,152 doubles the 820A’s OpenCL result, showing stronger compute throughput overall. Its 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth provides 18x the bandwidth of the 820A’s 1 GB DDR3, enabling high-resolution textures and large datasets. The RX 7400’s 28 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support make it the only choice for ray-traced games or Vulkan 1.4 applications. In every modern workload, DirectX 12 gaming, compute, ray tracing, or high-bandwidth memory tasks, the RX 7400 is the definitive winner, with the 820A holding only a narrow OpenCL-specific advantage.