AMD Radeon HD 8570M

The AMD Radeon HD 8570M is an end-of-life mobile graphics solution built on the GCN 1.0 architecture, utilizing the Sun chip on a 28 nm TSMC process. It integrates 320 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs, operating at a base clock of 750 MHz with a boost of 825 MHz. The card is equipped with 1024 MB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 16.00 GB/s. Its benchmark results place it at the 29th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 5183 in Geekbench OpenCL, positioning it firmly in the entry-level mobile segment.

How It Compares

Against the AMD Radeon R7 M260X, the HD 8570M is effectively a statistical tie. The R7 M260X averages 5179 points, which is only 0.1% lower than the HD 8570M’s 5183. This negligible delta means that in real-world terms, the two parts are interchangeable; neither offers a measurable advantage in compute workloads, and the performance class is identical.

The NVIDIA GeForce 840M sits marginally ahead, with an average score of 5200. This represents a delta of -0.3% for the HD 8570M, meaning the 840M is a hair faster. While the difference is within run-to-run variance, the data does consistently place the 840M slightly above, making it the better choice if every point matters, though the gap is far too small to influence practical gaming decisions.

The NVIDIA Quadro 4000M is next, scoring 5212 on average. The HD 8570M trails by 0.6%, a slightly larger margin than against the 840M but still well within the margin of error for synthetic benchmarks. The Quadro 4000M is a professional-grade part, but its compute score here indicates that the HD 8570M can hold its own in raw OpenCL throughput despite the different market positioning.

The strongest rival in this group is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M, which averages 5235. The HD 8570M is 1% behind, the largest delta among the listed competitors. Even so, a 1% difference is not perceptible in gaming frame rates; it suggests the HD 8570M is in the same performance envelope as the GTX 760M, which is notable given the latter’s higher-tier branding.

Who Should Consider It

Based on the benchmark data, the HD 8570M is suited for low-resolution gaming at modest settings. With a pixel rate of 6.600 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 16.50 GTexel/s, the card can handle 720p gaming in less demanding titles, but it will struggle with 1080p on high detail settings. The 528.0 GFLOPS of FP32 compute performance further reinforces this: it is adequate for older or esports titles, but not for modern AAA releases at full quality.

Users who play at 1366x768 or 1600x900 on laptops will find the HD 8570M workable for games with medium to low presets. The data shows it is directly comparable to the R7 M260X and GeForce 840M, both of which are known entry-level options. For 1080p, the card is not recommended, as the 16.00 GB/s memory bandwidth and 64-bit bus will become bottlenecks, particularly in texture-heavy scenes. The benchmark percentile of 29 indicates that this GPU is below the median of all tested GPUs, so expectations should be anchored to basic playability rather than high-fidelity experiences.

Memory Subsystem

The HD 8570M is configured with 1024 MB of DDR3 memory, a capacity that is minimal by modern standards but was common for entry-level parts of its generation. The memory operates at an effective speed of 2 Gbps, and with a 64-bit bus width, the total bandwidth is 16.00 GB/s. This figure is low, even for the time, and it directly impacts performance at higher resolutions.

The narrow bus is the primary constraint. In games that require streaming large textures, the 16.00 GB/s bandwidth will cause frame pacing issues and stutter when the memory pool is exceeded. The 1024 MB capacity means that 1080p textures will often spill into system memory, which is significantly slower. For the HD 8570M, the memory subsystem is the limiting factor more than the compute cores; the 528.0 GFLOPS of FP32 is reasonable for a chip of this size, but the bandwidth starves it in many real workloads. Users should treat this as a 720p-class card, as higher resolutions will expose the memory limitations quickly.

FAQ

Q: How does the HD 8570M compare to the GeForce GTX 760M?

A: The GTX 760M has an average score of 5235, which is 1% higher than the HD 8570M’s 5183. This is the largest performance gap among its nearest rivals, but it remains a minor difference in practical terms.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the HD 8570M?

A: The card features 1024 MB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus, providing a total bandwidth of 16.00 GB/s. This is a modest figure that limits high-resolution performance.

Q: Is the HD 8570M suitable for modern gaming?

A: With a percentile rank of 29 among all GPUs, the HD 8570M is below the median. It is suitable for older or less demanding games at low resolutions, but it is not recommended for modern titles at high settings.

Q: What API support does the HD 8570M offer?

A: The card supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. This allows it to run modern API-based applications, though its raw compute power will still limit performance.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size?

A: The Sun chip contains 690 million transistors on a die size of 56 mm², produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This results in a transistor density of 12.3M per mm².

Q: How does the HD 8570M compare to the Radeon R7 M260X?

A: The R7 M260X scores 5179, which is 0.1% lower than the HD 8570M’s 5183. The two are effectively identical in benchmark performance.

Benchmark Performance

The Geekbench OpenCL score of 5183 is the sole benchmark data point for the HD 8570M, and it serves as the basis for all comparative analysis. This score places the card at the 29th percentile of all GPUs, indicating that it outperforms roughly a quarter of tested hardware while trailing the majority. Within its immediate competitive set, the HD 8570M is the second-lowest scorer, but the deltas are so small that the ordering is almost arbitrary.

The nearest rival, the Radeon R7 M260X, scores 5179, a delta of 0.1% in favor of the HD 8570M. This is a tie in any meaningful sense; the 4-point difference is less than one tenth of one percent and will never translate to a visible performance difference in applications. The two cards are architecturally similar, and the data confirms they are peers.

The GeForce 840M scores 5200, putting the HD 8570M 0.3% behind. This is a slightly larger gap, but again, it is within the noise of synthetic benchmarks. The 840M may have a slight edge in driver optimizations or clock behavior, but the HD 8570M is not meaningfully slower. Users should consider these two cards as equivalent.

The Quadro 4000M scores 5212, a delta of -0.6% for the HD 8570M. The Quadro is a professional workstation part, so its appearance here is due to OpenCL compute performance rather than gaming relevance. The 0.6% gap is still negligible, meaning the HD 8570M can match a professional GPU in raw compute throughput, which speaks to the efficiency of the GCN 1.0 design at 28 nm.

The GeForce GTX 760M is the top scorer in this group at 5235, with the HD 8570M trailing by 1%. While 1% is the largest delta in the list, it is still a minor difference. The GTX 760M is generally considered a more capable gaming GPU, but the benchmark data shows that in OpenCL compute, the HD 8570M is only marginally behind. This suggests that the HD 8570M’s compute potential is not the bottleneck; rather, its memory subsystem and lower pixel/texture rates are what separate it from higher-tier parts in actual gaming scenarios. Overall, the HD 8570M sits in a tight performance cluster with these four rivals, and any of them would deliver a similar experience in the entry-level mobile segment.