ATI Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP

The ATI Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP is an integrated graphics processor built on the 65 nm process node, containing 180 million transistors on an 85 mm² die. It is based on the TeraScale architecture and utilizes the RS780 chip, positioning it as an entry-level mobile solution from AMD's TeraScale IGP generation. The part occupies the IGP slot width and connects via a PCIe 1.0 x16 bus interface, with display outputs that are portable device dependent. As an end-of-life product released in late 2009, its benchmark data shows a percentile rank of 50 against all GPUs, placing it at the exact midpoint of the performance distribution, though it has no recorded average benchmark score and no nearest rivals listed for direct comparison.

Benchmark Performance

The Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP presents a unique case in performance analysis because its benchmark data is entirely empty—there are no recorded scores, no average benchmark score, and no nearest rivals to contextualize its capabilities. The percentile rank of 50 indicates that it sits precisely at the median of all GPUs in the database, which is a statistical placeholder rather than a measured performance result. This is an unusual position for a mobile IGP, as most integrated solutions typically fall below the 50th percentile, but the absence of benchmark data means this figure should be interpreted cautiously.

The theoretical compute metrics provide the only concrete performance indicators. The GPU delivers 30.40 GFLOPS of FP32 compute performance, which is derived from its 40 shading units operating in parallel. The pixel rate stands at 1.520 GPixel/s, while the texture rate matches at 1.520 GTexel/s, reflecting the 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs working in tandem. These figures suggest a very limited throughput capability—the pixel and texture rates being identical indicates a balanced but severely constrained pipeline, where the 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs are each processing at the same rate. For context, this level of performance would be inadequate for any modern 3D application, but for a 2009-era mobile IGP, it represents the bare minimum needed for basic desktop compositing and legacy 2D workloads.

Without rival scores or delta percentages, the data cannot substantiate claims of being faster or slower than specific competitors. The lack of nearestRivals data means no comparative analysis is possible; the performance profile must be assessed solely on the raw throughput numbers. The 30.40 GFLOPS figure, when considered against the 40 shading units, indicates each unit contributes approximately 0.76 GFLOPS, which is consistent with a heavily power-constrained integrated design. The 50th percentile ranking, absent any measured scores, likely reflects the database's default placement for unbenchmarked parts rather than an actual performance assessment.

Power and Cooling

The Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP has no specified TDP in the fact pack, which is typical for integrated graphics solutions where power consumption is inherently tied to the host processor and system design. The absence of a TDP figure means the cooling solution is entirely dependent on the portable device's overall thermal design—the IGP itself generates minimal heat due to its low transistor count and modest clock speeds. The 65 nm manufacturing process, while older, contributes to the power profile; smaller process nodes generally offer better efficiency, but 65 nm is a mature node that would produce more heat per transistor than newer processes.

The power connector requirement is listed as "None," which is expected for an IGP that draws power from the motherboard rather than a dedicated PCIe power connector. There is no suggested PSU rating provided, and given the integrated nature of the part, a dedicated power supply recommendation would be irrelevant—the system's power delivery is handled by the laptop's battery and charging circuitry. The slot width of IGP confirms this is not a discrete card that would require additional power cabling or a larger chassis.

Thermal management for this IGP would be handled by the laptop's existing cooling system, which must dissipate heat from both the CPU and GPU simultaneously. The 180 million transistors on an 85 mm² die results in a transistor density of 2.1 million transistors per square millimeter, which is relatively low by modern standards but appropriate for the 65 nm era. This low density suggests the chip runs cool relative to more densely packed modern GPUs, but the absence of a TDP figure prevents any quantitative assessment of cooling requirements. The data indicates no separate cooling solution is needed—the IGP shares the system's thermal solution by design.

Memory Subsystem

The memory configuration for the Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP is entirely system-shared, with the fact pack listing size, type, and bus width all as "System Shared." This means the GPU does not have dedicated VRAM; instead, it borrows from the host system's main memory, which introduces significant performance variability depending on the laptop's RAM configuration. The memory clock is also listed as "System Shared," further emphasizing that the GPU's memory performance is contingent on the system's memory speed and architecture.

Bandwidth is described as "System Dependent," which is the critical caveat for this IGP. Unlike discrete GPUs with fixed memory bandwidth, the HD 3200's bandwidth will vary based on the system's memory type (DDR2 or DDR3), the number of memory channels, and the memory clock speed. In a dual-channel configuration with high-speed memory, the bandwidth could be substantially higher than in a single-channel budget laptop. However, even in the best case, system-shared memory imposes latency penalties and bandwidth contention with the CPU, making the IGP's effective memory performance lower than an equivalent discrete solution.

For high resolutions, this memory architecture presents fundamental limitations. The lack of dedicated VRAM means the GPU must constantly access system memory for both frame buffer and texture data, which competes with CPU memory requests. At resolutions where frame buffer requirements exceed available system memory bandwidth, performance would degrade noticeably. The 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs are already the bottleneck for fill-rate-bound workloads, but the shared memory bus would exacerbate this at higher resolutions. The system-dependent bandwidth means two laptops with the same IGP could have measurably different performance based solely on their memory configurations—a fact that makes any performance prediction inherently uncertain.

Who Should Consider It

Given the complete absence of benchmark scores and the theoretical compute metrics, the Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP is suitable only for the most basic computing tasks. The 30.40 GFLOPS FP32 performance and 1.520 GPixel/s pixel rate indicate this GPU cannot handle any modern 3D application, even at low resolutions and settings. The 40 shading units and 4 TMUs are sufficient for 2D desktop environments, video playback of era-appropriate codecs, and basic productivity applications, but any GPU-accelerated workload would strain the hardware.

For gaming, the data suggests this IGP would struggle with titles from its own 2009 era, let alone contemporary games. The pixel rate of 1.520 GPixel/s means that at 1080p resolution (approximately 2.07 million pixels), the GPU could theoretically fill only about 0.73 frames per second if fill-rate-bound—a stark illustration of its limitations. Even at 720p (0.92 million pixels), the maximum fill-rate-limited frame rate would be approximately 1.65 FPS, which is far below playable thresholds. These calculations assume perfect efficiency, which is never achievable in practice, so real-world performance would be even worse.

The target user for this IGP is someone running a lightweight operating system, performing basic web browsing, word processing, or watching standard-definition video. The system-shared memory and system-dependent bandwidth mean that users with faster RAM and dual-channel configurations would see better performance than those with minimal memory setups. However, the GPU's compute capability is so constrained that memory improvements would yield diminishing returns—the 40 shading units are the fundamental limit, not the memory bandwidth. This is a part for basic productivity and media consumption, not for any GPU-accelerated creative work or gaming.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon HD 3200 Mobile IGP predates ray tracing acceleration by over a decade—the fact pack lists no RT cores and no tensor cores, confirming this hardware has no dedicated ray tracing or AI acceleration capabilities. The TeraScale architecture was designed for traditional rasterization, and its feature set reflects the DirectX 10.0 (10_0) API support, which was the contemporary standard at its release. The GPU does support OpenGL 3.3, providing some compatibility with applications that use that API, but Vulkan support is absent, limiting modern cross-platform graphics compatibility.

The API support profile—DirectX 10.0 and OpenGL 3.3—represents the software ecosystem this GPU can interact with. DirectX 10.0 introduced geometry shaders and improved texture arrays, but it lacks the features of later DirectX versions like tessellation (added in DirectX 11) and DirectX 12's low-level hardware abstraction. OpenGL 3.3 support means the GPU can run applications using that API version, which includes some older games and professional applications, but it cannot run applications requiring OpenGL 4.x features. The absence of Vulkan support eliminates compatibility with modern Vulkan-based games and applications entirely.

The feature set is further constrained by the 40 shading units, which execute all shader workloads with no specialized hardware for ray tracing or machine learning. The lack of tensor cores means no AI-accelerated features like DLSS or similar upscaling technologies, and the absence of RT cores means any ray tracing would have to be done in software on the shading units—a task that would be impractically slow given the 30.40 GFLOPS compute budget. The GPU's feature set is strictly limited to the DirectX 10.0 era, making it obsolete for any modern graphics workload. The 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs further restrict the feature set's usefulness, as even supported APIs would run at impractically low performance levels.