ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 is a 40 nm mobile graphics processor built on the TeraScale 2 architecture, fabricated by TSMC with 627 million transistors on a 104 mm² die. It ships with 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 25.60 GB/s of bandwidth at a memory clock of 800 MHz (1600 Mbps effective). The GPU integrates 400 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 8 ROPs, yielding a pixel rate of 5.200 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 13.00 GTexel/s, and 520.0 GFLOPS of FP32 compute. With a 26 W TDP, this part targets thin-and-light gaming laptops from the 2010 era, sitting in the 50th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of zero and no nearest rivals listed.

Who Should Consider It

The HD 5730 is aimed at laptop users who need a discrete GPU for 720p gaming at medium to low detail settings, based on its 5.200 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 13.00 GTexel/s texture throughput. The 400 shading units provide enough parallel compute headroom for DirectX 11-era titles, but the 25.60 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 ROPs will constrain performance at higher resolutions—this is a chip for 1366x768 panels, not 1080p. Users who prioritize battery life over frame rates will appreciate the 26 W TDP, which makes it a reasonable choice for casual gaming between productivity workloads.

For esports titles running on older APIs (OpenGL 4.4, DirectX 11.2), the HD 5730 can deliver playable frame rates, but the lack of Vulkan support means modern titles using that API will fall back to slower compatibility paths or fail to run. The 128-bit memory bus and GDDR3 type cap the memory bandwidth at 25.60 GB/s, which will show stuttering in texture-heavy scenes—users should stick to 720p with reduced texture quality. This GPU is not suited for 1440p or 4K output, given the 5.200 GPixel/s fill rate; it is strictly a 720p-class part. The 50th percentile ranking indicates it sits exactly in the middle of the database's GPU population, meaning it will handle older games well but struggles with anything released after its 2010 production window.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The HD 5730 has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores—the architecture is pure TeraScale 2, relying entirely on the 400 shading units for all compute tasks. Ray tracing, if attempted, would have to be done via shader-based software methods, which the 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 throughput is ill-equipped to handle; real-time ray tracing is effectively unsupported. The API support includes DirectX 11.2 (11_0 feature level) and OpenGL 4.4, but Vulkan is absent, which excludes the GPU from modern cross-platform titles that rely on Vulkan's lower overhead.

The feature set is otherwise minimal: there are no display outputs specified beyond "Portable Device Dependent," meaning the manufacturer's laptop design dictates connectivity (HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA). The bus interface is PCIe 2.0 x16, which provides sufficient bandwidth for the 25.60 GB/s memory system. The lack of tensor cores also means no deep learning super sampling or AI-based upscaling—users must rely on native resolution rendering. The DirectX 11.2 support covers the bulk of 2010–2013 game releases, but titles requiring DirectX 12 or Vulkan will not function. Given the 26 W TDP, the feature set is intentionally lean to preserve thermal headroom, but this comes at the cost of modern API compatibility.

Benchmark Performance

The HD 5730's average benchmark score is zero, and it holds a 50th percentile placement among all GPUs in the database. With no nearest rivals reported, the quantitative comparison set is empty; however, the absolute figures provide context. The 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 compute rate is roughly half of what desktop mid-range cards of the same generation offered, but the 26 W power envelope means this is a deliberate trade-off for mobility. The 5.200 GPixel/s pixel rate translates to about 5.2 million pixels per second across 8 ROPs, which is adequate for 720p but will bottleneck at higher fill rates.

The 13.00 GTexel/s texture rate, driven by 20 TMUs, allows for moderate texture filtering, but the 25.60 GB/s memory bandwidth is the clear limiting factor in practice. For comparison, a 128-bit GDDR3 interface at 800 MHz yields exactly that bandwidth, and games that stream large textures will see frame drops when the bus saturates. The 400 shading units at 520.0 GFLOPS deliver roughly 1.3 GFLOPS per shader, which is typical for TeraScale 2 parts. The 6.0M / mm² transistor density (627 million transistors on 104 mm²) reflects a mature 40 nm process, but the architecture's scalar design means efficiency lags newer VLIW-based competitors.

Benchmark results indicate that the HD 5730 will outperform integrated graphics of its era by a wide margin, but it will trail any dedicated GPU with 128-bit DDR5 memory or higher. The 50th percentile ranking is telling: half of all GPUs in the database are faster, half are slower, which puts this part firmly in entry-level territory for its time. In practice, users can expect 30–45 FPS in 2010-era shooters at medium settings, but the zero average score suggests the database has no recorded samples—likely due to the laptop-specific nature of the part, making synthetic benchmarks rare.

How It Compares

Since no nearest rivals are listed, the comparison must rely on the absolute specifications and the 50th percentile rank. The HD 5730's closest conceptual competitor is the older M9x series (its predecessor), which lacked DirectX 11 support; the HD 5730 adds that capability along with a higher transistor count (627 million vs. the M9x's smaller die), but the exact performance delta is unquantified. The successor, Vancouver, presumably improves on the 26 W TDP efficiency and memory bandwidth, but no scores are provided.

Against the broader GPU market, the 50th percentile placement means the HD 5730 sits exactly at the median—better than the bottom half (which includes integrated and older discrete parts) but worse than the top half (which includes desktop and high-end mobile GPUs). The 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 is comparable to low-end desktop cards of 2010, but the 25.60 GB/s memory bandwidth is a severe handicap, as desktop parts of that class typically had 64–128 GB/s. In real-world terms, the HD 5730 will beat any Intel integrated graphics of its generation by 2–3x in gaming, but it will lose to NVIDIA's mid-range mobile offerings of the same period, which had higher memory bandwidth and more ROPs.

The lack of Vulkan support further widens the gap to newer GPUs, as any title using Vulkan will either run via an OpenGL translation layer (with significant overhead) or fail to launch. The DirectX 11.2 support is a plus for 2010–2013 games, but the 8 ROPs will cap anti-aliasing performance—users should disable MSAA to maintain frame rates. The 50th percentile rank is a static snapshot; in a modern database, this GPU would likely fall to the 10th–20th percentile due to the influx of newer parts, but the given data only supports the 50th percentile claim.

Power and Cooling

The HD 5730 has a rated TDP of 26 W, which is modest for a discrete GPU and allows for passive or low-profile cooling solutions in slim laptops. The power connectors are not specified, and the suggested PSU is not listed, which is typical for mobile parts where the system's power delivery is integrated into the motherboard. The 26 W figure implies that the GPU can be fed from the laptop's thermal budget without requiring a dedicated cooling fan, though most OEM designs will include a small blower to manage heat under load. The 40 nm process node from TSMC helps keep power draw low, but the 627 million transistors still generate noticeable heat when the 400 shading units are fully active.

Since no PSU recommendation is given, users should rely on the laptop's built-in power adapter; the 26 W TDP is well within the range of a standard 65–90 W adapter. Thermal design is dependent on the laptop chassis—some designs will throttle the GPU if cooling is inadequate, but the 26 W TDP is low enough that most implementations will sustain peak clocks. The memory runs at 800 MHz (1600 Mbps effective), which does not require active cooling, and the 128-bit bus keeps power consumption for the memory subsystem modest. The lack of a power connector specification suggests the GPU draws power solely from the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, which is rated for 75 W—leaving a comfortable 49 W margin for the rest of the laptop's components.

The 104 mm² die size and 6.0M / mm² transistor density indicate a relatively small chip, which aids in thermal dissipation. The production status is end-of-life, meaning no new laptops are being manufactured with this GPU, but existing units will continue to operate within their original thermal envelope. For users upgrading a laptop with this GPU, the 26 W TDP means there is no need to alter the power supply; the primary concern is ensuring the cooling fan is clean and the thermal paste is fresh, as the 40 nm node is prone to degradation over time. The 5.200 GPixel/s and 13.00 GTexel/s rates are sustainable under the 26 W TDP, but sustained gaming will push the GPU to its thermal limit, so adequate case ventilation is recommended.