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AMD Radeon 740M

AMD Radeon 740M: Mobile Graphics for Budget Gamers and Versatile Tasks

April 2025

1. Architecture and Key Features

RDNA 3: The Evolution of Energy Efficiency

The AMD Radeon 740M is based on the RDNA 3 architecture, optimized for mobile devices. The chips are manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process, which provides high transistor density and reduced power consumption. Compared to RDNA 2, the new generation offers 15% more performance per watt due to enhanced compute units and a reworked Infinity Cache.

Unique Features

- FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 3.1: Upscaling technology with frame generation capabilities, allowing for FPS increases of up to 40-60% in games with minimal quality loss.

- Hybrid Ray Tracing: Ray tracing acceleration through 2 Ray Accelerators, although their limited number means RT modes are only feasible in lightweight projects.

- Smart Access Memory (SAM): Optimization for CPU access to video memory, boosting performance when paired with Ryzen 5000/7000 processors.

2. Memory: Fast but Not Gigabytes

Type and Size

The Radeon 740M uses 4GB GDDR6 with a 64-bit bus. The bandwidth is 96 GB/s, which is half that of desktop counterparts. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming, but in highly detailed scenes or when working with 4K textures, stuttering may occur.

Impact on Performance

The limited memory capacity becomes a bottleneck in demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield. For instance, when activating HD texture packs, the game can consume over 6GB of VRAM, leading to FPS drops. For professional tasks (like rendering in Blender), 4GB is the minimum threshold, making the card suitable only for simple projects.

3. Gaming Performance: 1080p as the Comfortable Standard

Average FPS in Popular Games (High Settings):

- Fortnite (without RT): 85 FPS; with FSR 3.1 — 110 FPS.

- Apex Legends: 75 FPS.

- Elden Ring: 55-60 FPS (with periodic drops in open-world areas).

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare V: 65 FPS.

Resolutions and RTX

- 1080p: The ideal choice. RT effects can reduce FPS by 30-40%, so they should be used only in less demanding projects (e.g., Minecraft RTX).

- 1440p: Only with FSR 3.1. Average FPS in Horizon Forbidden West — 45 FPS.

- 4K: Not recommended — even in indie games, stability falls below 30 FPS.

4. Professional Tasks: For Beginners

Video Editing

In DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro, the Radeon 740M handles 1080p video rendering, but 4K timelines require optimization. Encoding acceleration through AMD VCN speeds up H.264/H.265 exports by 20-30% compared to integrated graphics.

3D Modeling

In Blender (using OpenCL), rendering a simple scene takes 2-3 times longer than on an NVIDIA RTX 4050 Mobile. It's acceptable for education or hobbies, but for professional work, a discrete card with 8+ GB of memory is preferable.

Scientific Computing

Support for OpenCL 3.0 allows using the GPU in machine learning (e.g., TensorFlow), but the lack of specialized cores (like CUDA Cores) limits data processing speed.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation: Cool and Quiet

TDP and Cooling

The TDP of the Radeon 740M is 35W, making it ideal for slim laptops. Combined with the Ryzen 5 7640U, the overall system power consumption rarely exceeds 60W.

Recommendations

- Laptops with dual fans (e.g., ASUS ZenBook 14) ensure stable operation without throttling.

- Avoid ultra-thin laptops with passive cooling — under load, the GPU can heat up to 85°C, reducing performance.

6. Comparison with Competitors: The Budget Battle

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (6 GB)

- Pros: Better ray tracing (25-30 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS 3.5), more VRAM.

- Cons: Higher price (laptops starting at $1000), TDP of 50W.

Intel Arc A580M

- Pros: 8 GB of memory, supports XeSS.

- Cons: Driver issues in older games, high power consumption (40W).

Conclusion: The Radeon 740M excels in energy efficiency and price (laptops starting at $800) but falls short in RTX scenarios.

7. Practical Advice: How Not to Go Wrong

Power Supply

A standard adapter rated at 65-90W is sufficient. For models with Ryzen 7 and 740M, opt for 100W power supplies for an extra margin.

Compatibility

- Only modern platforms: laptops with Ryzen 7000/8000 series or Intel Core 13/14 Gen with PCIe 4.0.

- Update drivers through AMD Adrenalin: monthly patches improve stability and provide optimizations for new games.

Driver Nuances

Avoid "raw" beta versions — artifacts may occur in Vulkan games (such as Baldur’s Gate 4).

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Ideal for 1080p gaming.

- Low power consumption.

- Support for FSR 3.1 and SAM.

Cons:

- Only 4 GB of memory.

- Weak RT capabilities.

- Limited professional applicability.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the Radeon 740M For?

This graphics card is an excellent choice for:

- Students: A lightweight laptop for studies and gaming during breaks.

- Office Users: More powerful than integrated graphics without overspending.

- Casual Gamers: Comfortable FPS in Full HD without frills.

If you're looking to play with ray tracing or work in 3D applications, consider the RTX 4050 or Radeon 760M. However, for a balance of price, performance, and portability in 2025, the 740M remains one of the best options in the sub-$1000 segment.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Integrated

Launch Date

January 2023

Model Name

Radeon 740M

Generation

Navi III IGP

Base Clock

1500MHz

Boost Clock

2500MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x8

Transistors

25,390 million

RT Cores

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

4 nm

Architecture

RDNA 3.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

System Shared

Memory Type

System Shared

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

System Shared

Memory Clock

SystemShared

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

System Dependent

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

20.00 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

40.00 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

5.120 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

160.0 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

2.509 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

256

L1 Cache

128 KB per Array

L2 Cache

2MB

TDP

15W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

2.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 Ultimate (12_2)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.7

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.