AMD Radeon HD 6490M Mac Edition

The AMD Radeon HD 6490M Mac Edition is a mobile GPU built on the Seymour chip using TeraScale 2 architecture. It was released on May 1, 2011, and is now end-of-life. The card is fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC, with 370 million transistors on a 67 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 5.5M per mm². It offers 160 shading units, 8 texture mapping units, and 4 ROPs, delivering 240.0 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, a pixel rate of 3.000 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 6.000 GTexel/s. Memory is 256 MB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit bus, providing 25.41 GB/s of bandwidth. The database places this GPU at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, indicating a median performance position.

Who Should Consider It

Given the specifications, this GPU is best suited for low-resolution gaming or basic desktop tasks. The 256 MB frame buffer is small by modern standards, and the 64-bit memory interface limits bandwidth to 25.41 GB/s. For 720p or lower resolutions with reduced texture quality, the card can handle older titles or less demanding applications. The pixel rate of 3.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 6.000 GTexel/s suggest that high refresh rates at 1080p are beyond its capability. Users running legacy software or needing a simple display output for a Mac system may find it adequate. However, for modern games or high-resolution textures, the memory capacity and bandwidth are insufficient. The 50th percentile rank indicates that it performs in the middle of the historical GPU range, but that is relative to all GPUs, many of which are much newer and more powerful. The card’s bus interface is PCIe 2.0 x16, which is compatible with many systems of its era, but it does not support newer PCIe revisions. For those who need a basic 2D/3D accelerator for a Mac environment, this card can serve as a functional, if limited, solution.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK lists no direct rivals for this GPU, so a head-to-head comparison is not possible from the available data. However, its position in the product stack is defined by its predecessor "Manhattan" and successor "London" within the Vancouver generation (HD 6400M). As a member of that generation, it shares the TeraScale 2 architecture and 40 nm process. The 50th percentile rank across all GPUs places it exactly at the median, meaning it outperforms half of the GPUs in the database and lags behind the other half. This percentile is a global measure, not a comparison to specific competitors. Without benchmark scores or nearest rival data, further relative analysis is limited. The card's compute throughput of 240.0 GFLOPS and memory bandwidth of 25.41 GB/s are the key differentiators that would define its standing against any potential rival, but no such rival data is recorded. The absence of a launch MSRP and the lack of benchmark results further restrict quantitative comparisons. In the context of its own generation, the card occupies a mid-range slot, but the exact positioning relative to the Manhattan predecessor and London successor cannot be quantified because their specifications are not provided.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The AMD Radeon HD 6490M Mac Edition does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as those features were not part of the TeraScale 2 architecture. Consequently, hardware-accelerated ray tracing is not supported. The card's API support is limited to DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4. There is no Vulkan support listed. This means that applications requiring Vulkan or newer DirectX versions will not run with full feature support. The DirectX 11.2 (11_0) level is adequate for many titles released around the card's era, but modern games often require DirectX 12 or Vulkan. The absence of tensor cores also means no AI-accelerated features such as DLSS. The feature set is therefore basic, focusing on traditional rasterization. The card also lacks a dedicated Vulkan implementation, which limits its compatibility with cross-platform engines that rely on Vulkan for low-level access. The bus interface of PCIe 2.0 x16 provides a standard connection, but it does not offer the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0 or 4.0. Overall, the feature set is minimal and oriented toward legacy use cases.

FAQ

Q: Does this GPU support DirectX 12?

A: No. The card supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4, but no Vulkan or DirectX 12 is listed.

Q: What is the memory capacity and type?

A: It has 256 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 25.41 GB/s.

Q: What is the FP32 compute performance?

A: The card delivers 240.0 GFLOPS of FP32 throughput.

Q: Is the card still in production?

A: No, its production status is end-of-life. It was released on May 1, 2011.

Q: What process node is used?

A: The GPU is fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC, with 370 million transistors on a 67 mm² die.

Q: Does it support ray tracing?

A: No. There are no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, and the architecture does not include hardware ray tracing support.

Benchmark Performance

The database records an average benchmark score of 0 for this GPU, and no individual benchmark results are provided. Therefore, direct performance metrics from benchmarks are unavailable. The only performance-related data point is the 50th percentile rank among all GPUs. This percentile is derived from the entire database and indicates that the card sits exactly at the median. In practical terms, it means that half of all GPUs (across all eras) are faster, and half are slower. The compute capabilities, however, can be analyzed from the specifications. The FP32 throughput of 240.0 GFLOPS is modest, and the pixel rate of 3.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 6.000 GTexel/s are correspondingly low. These figures suggest that the card is suitable for lightweight workloads, but not for demanding 3D rendering. The memory bandwidth of 25.41 GB/s further constrains performance, as texture and geometry data must be fetched through a 64-bit interface. Without benchmark scores, the percentile rank remains the only quantitative comparison point, and it places this GPU in the middle of the historical performance spectrum. The lack of any recorded benchmark results also means that the card's real-world performance in specific titles cannot be validated against the database. The transistor density of 5.5M per mm² is a structural metric, but it does not translate directly into performance. Overall, the benchmark section is limited by missing data, and the percentile rank serves as the sole numerical anchor.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem consists of 256 MB of GDDR5 memory connected via a 64-bit bus. The memory clock is 794 MHz, translating to 3.2 Gbps effective data rate. This yields a bandwidth of 25.41 GB/s. The small capacity of 256 MB is a significant limitation for high-resolution gaming, as modern textures and frame buffers can easily exceed this amount. At 1080p or higher, the card would likely run out of memory, causing severe stuttering or failure to load assets. The 64-bit bus width also limits the amount of data that can be transferred per clock cycle, further reducing effective throughput. For a GPU released in 2011, these specifications were entry-level. The bandwidth of 25.41 GB/s is sufficient for low-resolution, low-detail settings, but it is far below what contemporary GPUs offer. The memory clock of 794 MHz is also relatively low, though the GDDR5 type provides a double data rate. The 256 MB capacity is particularly restrictive for texture-heavy applications, and the 64-bit interface means that even the available bandwidth is not efficiently utilized. In high-resolution scenarios, the memory subsystem becomes the primary bottleneck, as the GPU cannot hold enough frame data or texture assets. For users who need to run applications with large memory footprints, this card is not suitable. The memory configuration is one of the clearest indicators of the card's intended niche: basic 2D/3D acceleration at modest resolutions, not high-end gaming or professional rendering.