NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions from NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture generation, but they occupy very different performance tiers within that family. The GT 730M, released earlier, targets basic multimedia and light productivity tasks, while the GTX 860M, released over a year later, is engineered for demanding gaming and compute workloads. Benchmark data from the FACT PACK shows a clear performance hierarchy, with the GTX 860M dominating in every head-to-head test, yet the two cards also exhibit distinct architectural and specification profiles that explain their respective positions.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M is the decisive winner in every benchmark category recorded in the FACT PACK. It wins both head-to-head tests — Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan — and its average benchmark score of 2967 reflects a broader, more robust testing suite that includes DirectX 9/10/11/12, compute, and 2D tests. The GTX 860M’s wins are not marginal; the data shows it holds a 70.3% advantage in OpenCL performance and a 63.5% advantage in Vulkan performance over the GT 730M. This card is built for sustained high-throughput tasks, as evidenced by its 2.108 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power and 80.00 GB/s memory bandwidth, both of which are multiples of the GT 730M’s figures. In any workload that leverages raw shader throughput, texture fill, or memory bandwidth — such as modern game rendering, GPU-accelerated video encoding, or OpenCL-based compute — the GTX 860M is the clear choice.

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M, by contrast, wins no benchmark in the FACT PACK. Its strengths lie not in performance but in efficiency and simplicity. With a TDP of 33 W versus the GTX 860M’s 75 W, the GT 730M consumes less than half the power while still providing functional support for DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. Its 2 GB DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 28.80 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for desktop composition, video playback, and legacy DirectX 9/10 titles. The GT 730M’s 20th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it near the bottom of the performance spectrum, but for a system that prioritizes battery life and thermal restraint over frame rates, it is the more practical option. In short, the GTX 860M wins on performance; the GT 730M wins on power draw and thermal envelope, though no benchmark data quantifies that advantage in frame rates or efficiency metrics.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The GTX 860M has an average benchmark score of 2967, while the GT 730M has an average score of 3316. This is an unusual case where the lower-tier GPU shows a higher average due to the different test suites — the GT 730M’s average is derived from only two Geekbench tests, while the GTX 860M’s average includes ten tests, many of which are more demanding DirectX and compute workloads.

Q: How much faster is the GTX 860M in OpenCL compute?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the GTX 860M scores 10461 compared to the GT 730M’s 3107, representing a 70.3% advantage for the GTX 860M. This deltaPct is the largest performance gap between the two cards in any benchmark.

Q: Does the GT 730M have any performance advantage in the head-to-head tests?

A: No. The FACT PACK shows the GTX 860M wins both head-to-head benchmarks — Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan — with zero wins for the GT 730M (winsA: 0, winsB: 2). The GT 730M’s Vulkan score of 3524 is higher than its OpenCL score, but still 63.5% below the GTX 860M’s Vulkan result of 9648.

Q: What are the closest performance rivals for each card?

A: For the GT 730M, the nearest rival is the Intel HD Graphics 530, with an average score of 3332 and a deltaPct of -0.5% (meaning the GT 730M is 0.5% slower). For the GTX 860M, the closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti, with an average score of 2953 and a deltaPct of 0.5% (meaning the GTX 860M is 0.5% faster).

Q: Do both cards support the same API levels?

A: Yes. Both GPUs list DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175 in their API support. The 11_0 feature level for DirectX 12 indicates they are limited to the feature set of DirectX 11, despite the version number.

Q: Which card has a larger transistor count and die size?

A: The GTX 860M uses the GK104 chip with 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, while the GT 730M uses the GK107 chip with 1,270 million transistors on a 118 mm² die. The GTX 860M’s die is roughly 2.5 times larger in area and carries nearly three times the transistors.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The FACT PACK includes two direct head-to-head comparisons, both won decisively by the GTX 860M. The first is Geekbench OpenCL, where the GTX 860M scores 10461 against the GT 730M’s 3107. This yields a deltaPct of -70.3%, meaning the GT 730M is 70.3% slower than the GTX 860M. The magnitude of this gap is consistent with the underlying hardware: the GTX 860M has 1152 shading units versus 384 on the GT 730M, and its FP32 throughput of 2.108 TFLOPS is 3.79 times higher than the GT 730M’s 556.8 GFLOPS. OpenCL workloads that are shader-bound, such as physics simulations, image processing, or cryptocurrency mining, will see roughly this level of scaling.

The second head-to-head test is Geekbench Vulkan, where the GTX 860M again wins with a score of 9648 versus 3524 for the GT 730M, a deltaPct of -63.5%. Vulkan is a lower-level API that exposes the GPU’s raw compute and graphics capabilities more directly than OpenCL in some respects, but the relative performance gap remains similar. The GTX 860M’s higher boost clock of 915 MHz (versus the GT 730M’s flat 725 MHz) and its larger texture unit count (96 TMUs versus 32 TMUs) contribute to this sustained advantage. It is notably the GT 730M’s Vulkan score of 3524 is actually higher than its OpenCL score of 3107, suggesting that the Kepler architecture on this chip handles Vulkan’s command buffers efficiently relative to its OpenCL path, but it still trails the GTX 860M by a wide margin.

Beyond the head-to-head tests, the GTX 860M’s broader benchmark suite reveals its versatility. It scores 4900 in Geekbench Metal, 3081 in Passmark G3D, and 226 in Passmark G2D. The Passmark DirectX scores are low (15, 23, 13, 55 for DX10, DX11, DX12, and DX9 respectively), which appears to reflect the test’s methodology for mobile Kepler parts rather than actual gaming performance — the G3D score of 3081 is a more representative measure of overall 3D capability. The GT 730M has no corresponding Passmark data in the FACT PACK, so no direct comparison is possible for those specific tests.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The shading units are the most striking difference: the GTX 860M has 1152, exactly triple the GT 730M’s 384. This directly scales the compute throughput, as seen in the FP32 figures of 2.108 TFLOPS versus 556.8 GFLOPS. The texture mapping units (TMUs) also triple from 32 on the GT 730M to 96 on the GTX 860M, yielding texture rates of 23.20 GTexel/s and 87.84 GTexel/s respectively. The ROPs are identical at 16 for both cards, which explains why the pixel rates scale less dramatically — 5.800 GPixel/s for the GT 730M versus 21.96 GPixel/s for the GTX 860M, a 3.79x gap driven more by clock speed than ROP count.

Clock speeds also differ significantly. The GT 730M runs at a base and boost clock of 725 MHz — there is no boost behavior, as both values are identical. The GTX 860M has a base clock of 797 MHz and a boost clock of 915 MHz, providing a 14.8% clock increase under load. Memory is another major divergence: the GT 730M uses DDR3 at 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective) for 28.80 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 860M uses GDDR5 at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) for 80.00 GB/s bandwidth — nearly three times the memory bandwidth despite the same 128-bit bus width and 2 GB capacity. The TDP difference is substantial: 33 W for the GT 730M versus 75 W for the GTX 860M, with the GT 730M using an MXM module slot while the GTX 860M is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factor. Both use PCIe 3.0 x16 and have no power connectors.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built on NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture, manufactured by TSMC on a 28 nm process node, but they use entirely different chips. The GT 730M uses the GK107 chip, while the GTX 860M uses the GK104. The GK104 is a substantially larger and more complex design: it contains 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, versus 1,270 million transistors on a 118 mm² die for the GK107. This translates to a transistor density of 12.0M / mm² for the GK104 versus 10.8M / mm² for the GK107, indicating that the GTX 860M’s chip is not only bigger but also slightly denser. The GK104 is typically used in NVIDIA’s higher-end desktop and mobile parts from this era, which is consistent with the GTX 860M’s 2.108 TFLOPS FP32 performance.

The memory subsystem differences are architectural as well. The GT 730M’s DDR3 memory is older, lower-bandwidth technology that is shared with system memory in some implementations, while the GTX 860M’s GDDR5 provides dedicated, high-speed memory that is essential for feeding the larger shader array. The GTX 860M’s memory clock of 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) is significantly higher than the GT 730M’s 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective). Neither GPU has ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as those features were introduced in later architectures. Both support the same API set: DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The GTX 860M is part of the GeForce 800M generation, succeeding the GeForce 700M, while the GT 730M belongs to the GeForce 700M generation, succeeding the GeForce 600M. This generational gap of roughly 14 months (release dates of 2013-01-19 for the GT 730M and 2014-03-09 for the GTX 860M) allowed NVIDIA to implement the larger GK104 chip in a mobile form factor, which is the primary reason for the performance disparity.