Home / AMD / AMD Radeon R9 M275X: Performance and Specs

AMD Radeon R9 M275X

AMD Radeon R9 M275X: Review and Analysis in 2025

The Past and Present of Mobile Graphics

1. Architecture and Key Features

GCN 1.0 Architecture: The Legacy of 28 nm

The AMD Radeon R9 M275X is a mobile graphics card released in 2014 based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 architecture. It is manufactured using a 28-nanometer process, which at the time provided a balance of performance and energy efficiency. However, by 2025, this technology is considered obsolete compared to modern 5–7 nm GPU chips.

Unique Features: Lacking Modern Technologies

The R9 M275X does not support ray tracing (RTX), DLSS, or AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). Its capabilities are limited to basic features like AMD Eyefinity for multi-monitor setups and the Mantle API, which was later replaced by Vulkan. This card is unsuitable for running games with ray tracing or upscaling.

2. Memory: Modest Specifications for Modern Tasks

GDDR5 and 128-bit Bus

The card is equipped with 2 or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. The bandwidth reaches 72–96 GB/s (depending on the model), which is insufficient even for budget gaming in 2025. For example, modern titles like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty require at least 6–8 GB of VRAM.

Impact on Performance

The limited memory capacity and low bandwidth result in a "bottleneck" in games with highly detailed textures. Even at low settings in 1080p resolution, lag and texture loading issues may occur.

3. Gaming Performance: A Nostalgia for the Past

Average FPS in Popular Titles

- CS:GO (1080p, high settings): 60–80 FPS.

- The Witcher 3 (1080p, low settings): 25–30 FPS.

- Fortnite (1080p, low settings): 40–50 FPS (without FSR support).

Resolutions and Settings

The card is designed for 720p–1080p. At 1440p and 4K, it does not provide smooth gameplay even in less demanding indie games. Modern AAA titles like Starfield or Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora struggle to run on it.

4. Professional Tasks: Office-Level Performance

Video Editing and 3D Modeling

With support for OpenCL 1.2, the R9 M275X can handle basic tasks in Adobe Premiere Pro or Blender, but rendering complex scenes will take hours. In comparison, modern GPUs based on RDNA 3 architecture perform similar tasks 5–10 times faster.

Scientific Calculations

The lack of specialized cores (like NVIDIA's CUDA) and low computational power (around 1 TFLOPS) render the card useless for machine learning or simulations.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP and Cooling

The card has a TDP of 75 W. In laptops, it frequently overheats due to compact cooling systems. Recommendations include:

- Regular cleaning of fans.

- Using cooling pads.

- Avoiding prolonged gaming sessions.

Chassis and Compatibility

As a mobile GPU, it cannot be installed in desktops. Laptop owners with the R9 M275X should look for models with improved ventilation systems (for example, older versions of the MSI GE Series).

6. Comparison to Competitors

Analogues from 2014–2015

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M: Comparable in performance but benefits from more stable drivers.

- AMD Radeon R9 M370X: An updated version with 4 GB of memory, 10–15% faster.

Modern Alternatives

In 2025, budget models like the AMD Radeon RX 6500M (4 GB GDDR6, 6 nm) or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile offer 3–4 times higher performance at similar TDP.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply

For laptops with the R9 M275X, a standard adapter of 90–120 W is sufficient. When replacing the battery, choose original components.

Compatibility with Platforms

The card only works in systems with PCIe 3.0 x8. Modern motherboards with PCIe 5.0 are backward compatible, but there is no performance gain.

Drivers

Official driver support ended in 2020. For Windows 10/11, modified enthusiast versions can be used, but stability is not guaranteed.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price on the second-hand market ($50–100).

- Suitable for office tasks and older games.

- Energy-efficient for basic scenarios.

Cons:

- No support for modern technologies (ray tracing, FSR).

- Poor performance in professional applications.

- Limited compatibility with new software.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the R9 M275X For?

This graphics card is suitable for:

- Owners of older laptops who want to extend their life for document work and video viewing.

- Retro gaming enthusiasts willing to compromise with low settings in 2010s titles.

- Users on a tight budget who do not plan to upgrade in the near future.

However, for gaming in 2025, professional editing, or scientific tasks, the R9 M275X is hopelessly outdated. If your budget allows, consider modern budget GPUs as they will provide a performance buffer for the next 3–5 years.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

January 2014

Model Name

Radeon R9 M275X

Generation

Gem System

Base Clock

900MHz

Boost Clock

925MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

1,500 million

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

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 1.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

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.

128bit

Memory Clock

1125MHz

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.

72.00 GB/s

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.

14.80 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.

37.00 GTexel/s

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.

74.00 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.

1.16 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.

640

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

256KB

TDP

Unknown

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.

1.2.170

OpenCL Version

2.1 (1.2)

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (11_1)

Shader Model

6.5 (5.1)

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.

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

1.16 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon HD 7950 Monica BIOS 2

1.204 +3.8%

Radeon HD 4870 X2

1.176 +1.4%

Radeon R9 M275X

1.16

Iris Pro Graphics P580

1.129 -2.7%

Radeon HD 6850M

1.102 -5%