AMD Radeon HD 7570M

Launched in early 2012 on TSMC’s 40 nm process, the AMD Radeon HD 7570M is a 13 W mobile graphics part built on the TeraScale 2 architecture with the Thames chip, housing 480 shading units, 24 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. It carries 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding 25.60 GB/s of bandwidth, and its benchmark results place it in the 4th percentile of all GPUs, making it a decidedly entry-level solution for its era.

Who Should Consider It

The HD 7570M is aimed squarely at users who need basic 3D acceleration for lightweight productivity and older or less demanding games, rather than any kind of high-refresh or high-detail experience. With a Geekbench OpenCL score of 1103, the data indicates this GPU is suited for 720p resolution with low to medium settings in titles from its release period, but it will struggle with modern software or any game that relies heavily on shader complexity. The 8.000 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 12.00 GTexel/s texture rate further underscore that this is a part designed for modest workloads, such as video playback, office suites, and casual web browsing with hardware acceleration.

At 1024 MB of VRAM, the HD 7570M has enough memory for basic framebuffer needs at 1366x768 or 1600x900, but the 64-bit memory interface limits effective bandwidth to 25.60 GB/s, which will become a bottleneck in texture-heavy scenes. Users who primarily run legacy applications or play indie titles with simple graphics will find the performance acceptable, but anyone expecting smooth frame rates in AAA games from 2012 onward should look elsewhere. The 4th percentile ranking versus all GPUs confirms that this is a bottom-tier part, so it should be considered only for systems where power efficiency and basic functionality take precedence over gaming capability.

For productivity tasks like photo editing in 2D or document processing, the HD 7570M provides sufficient acceleration, especially when paired with the 480 GFLOPS of FP32 compute power. However, the lack of modern API support (DirectX 11.2 with 11_0 feature level, OpenGL 4.4, and no Vulkan) means that any application relying on newer graphics features will either fail to run or fall back to software rendering. In summary, this GPU is for users with undemanding needs who prioritize a 13 W power envelope over raw performance, and who are willing to accept its end-of-life status.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The HD 7570M does not include any dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as it predates those technologies entirely. The TeraScale 2 architecture is a traditional rasterization design, and the absence of RT and tensor hardware means there is no support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, DLSS-style upscaling, or any AI-based rendering features. For the era, this was standard, but it places the GPU firmly in the category of legacy hardware with no forward-looking feature set.

From an API standpoint, the card supports DirectX 11.2 (with an 11_0 feature level), which allows it to run DirectX 11 games, but not DirectX 12 titles that require higher feature levels. OpenGL 4.4 is supported, which covers many cross-platform applications, but Vulkan is not listed, so any modern Vulkan-based games or emulators are out of reach. The display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning that the actual connectors vary by laptop implementation, so users must consult their system documentation for available ports.

The lack of Vulkan support is particularly limiting for longevity, as many modern games and engines have moved to Vulkan as their primary low-level API. The 480 shading units and 24 TMUs are arranged in a configuration that was competitive for entry-level laptops in 2012, but the feature set does not include any hardware video encoding or decoding blocks beyond what the TeraScale 2 architecture provided at the time. In practical terms, users should expect this GPU to handle basic DirectX 11 games with reduced settings, but it will not support any of the advanced rendering techniques introduced in the last decade.

Benchmark Performance

In Geekbench OpenCL, the HD 7570M scores 1103, which is within a narrow band of its nearest rivals, indicating that performance is tightly clustered among these entry-level mobile parts. The closest competitor is the AMD FirePro M2000, which scores 1168, putting the HD 7570M 5.6% behind that card. The NVIDIA Quadro M600M scores 1179, a 6.5% advantage over the HD 7570M, while the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 achieves 1186, representing a 7% lead. The largest gap among the listed rivals is against the ATI Radeon HD 5770, which scores 1190 and is 7.3% faster than the HD 7570M.

These deltas are relatively small, ranging from 5.6% to 7.3%, which suggests that the HD 7570M is effectively in the same performance tier as these competitors, with differences that would be imperceptible in real-world usage outside of synthetic benchmarks. The data shows that the HD 7570M is the slowest of the five GPUs in this comparison group, but the margin is narrow enough that no single rival represents a decisive upgrade. For context, the 4th percentile ranking against all GPUs places it near the bottom of the overall distribution, reinforcing that this is an entry-level part with limited compute capabilities.

The 480.0 GFLOPS of FP32 performance is the theoretical peak, and the 1103 OpenCL score reflects real-world execution that is consistent with that figure. The pixel rate of 8.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 12.00 GTexel/s are modest, and they align with the benchmark results, showing that the GPU is balanced across its fixed-function units. When compared to the nearest rivals, the HD 7570M’s performance deficit is consistent across all metrics, but the small deltas mean that users upgrading from a similarly aged GPU will not see a dramatic improvement, while those downgrading from a higher-tier part will notice the drop immediately.

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Radeon HD 7570M perform in OpenCL workloads?

A: The GPU scores 1103 in Geekbench OpenCL, which places it in the 4th percentile of all GPUs, indicating entry-level compute performance suitable for basic tasks but not demanding parallel workloads.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the HD 7570M?

A: It features 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, providing 25.60 GB/s of memory bandwidth and a memory clock of 800 MHz (3.2 Gbps effective).

Q: Does the HD 7570M support modern graphics APIs like Vulkan?

A: No, the GPU supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0 feature level) and OpenGL 4.4, but Vulkan is not listed in its API specifications, limiting compatibility with modern titles.

Q: How much power does the HD 7570M consume?

A: The thermal design power (TDP) is 13 W, which is very low for a discrete GPU, making it suitable for thin and light laptops where power efficiency is critical.

Q: Is the HD 7570M still in production?

A: No, the production status is end-of-life, and it was released on January 6, 2012, with a successor named "Solar System."

Q: What is the transistor count and die size of the HD 7570M?

A: The Thames chip contains 716 million transistors on a 118 mm² die, manufactured on TSMC’s 40 nm process with a transistor density of 6.1M per mm².

Power and Cooling

The AMD Radeon HD 7570M has a TDP of just 13 W, which is exceptionally low for a discrete GPU and reflects its positioning as a power-efficient mobile part. This low power draw means that it requires no auxiliary power connectors, as the slot power from the PCIe 2.0 x16 interface is sufficient to run the card at full load. The bus interface is PCIe 2.0 x16, which provides adequate bandwidth for the 25.60 GB/s memory subsystem, though the older standard is a limiting factor for data transfer compared to newer PCIe generations.

Because the TDP is so low, the cooling solution in a laptop can be minimal, typically a small heatsink with a low-speed fan or even passive cooling in some designs. The lack of a suggested PSU in the specifications is unsurprising, as this is a mobile GPU that draws power from the system’s battery and power adapter rather than a desktop power supply. In a desktop context, any standard power supply would easily handle the 13 W load, but the HD 7570M was designed exclusively for portable systems where thermal and power constraints are paramount.

The 40 nm process node and 716 million transistors contribute to the efficiency, but the TeraScale 2 architecture is not as power-scalable as later designs, so the 13 W figure is achieved through conservative clock speeds and a limited shader array. The memory runs at 800 MHz (3.2 Gbps effective), which is modest and helps keep power consumption low, but it also caps bandwidth at 25.60 GB/s, which is a known performance bottleneck. For users, the practical implication is that the HD 7570M generates minimal heat, so it can be used in ultra-thin chassis without aggressive cooling, but it will throttle or underperform if the laptop’s cooling solution is inadequate for sustained loads.