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AMD Radeon 680M

AMD Radeon 680M: The Power of Integrated Graphics in the Era of Hybrid Systems

April 2025

Introduction

Since the launch of the RDNA 2 architecture, AMD has continued to impress by integrating powerful GPUs into mobile processors. The Radeon 680M is a striking example of how integrated graphics have ceased to be a compromise and have transformed into a tool for gaming and productivity. In this article, we will explore what makes this graphics card noteworthy, who it is suitable for, and how it competes with solutions from NVIDIA and Intel.

1. Architecture and Key Features

RDNA 2: The Foundation of Efficiency

The Radeon 680M is built on the RDNA 2 architecture, the same used in the discrete RX 6000 series GPUs. This ensures high performance per watt, which is critically important for mobile devices. The manufacturing process is 6 nm (TSMC), allowing for 12 compute units (768 stream processors) and maintaining energy efficiency.

Unique Features

- FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR): Upscaling technology that increases FPS in games with minimal quality loss (support for FSR 3.0 with Fluid Motion mode).

- Ray Tracing: Hardware support for ray tracing, although with limited performance.

- Smart Access Memory (SAM): Optimization for CPU access to GPU memory, increasing FPS by 5-10% when paired with Ryzen processors.

Important: The Radeon 680M is an integrated solution, so its capabilities are directly dependent on the system configuration (e.g., amount and speed of RAM).

2. Memory: Flexibility Over Dedicated Chips

Type and Capacity

Unlike discrete GPUs, the 680M uses system RAM. The standard configuration for laptops is DDR5-4800 or LPDDR5-6400. The amount of allocated VRAM is dynamic: up to 2 GB is fixed, but it can borrow up to 8 GB from the RAM.

Bandwidth

- At DDR5-4800: 38.4 GB/s.

- At LPDDR5-6400: 51.2 GB/s.

This parameter is critical for games with high texture detail. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, the difference between DDR5 and LPDDR5 can reach 15% in FPS.

3. Gaming Performance: Modest but Respectable

1080p — Comfortable Standard

At medium settings, the Radeon 680M showcases:

- Fortnite (DX12, FSR Balanced): 60-70 fps.

- Apex Legends: 55-65 fps.

- Elden Ring (Low): 40-50 fps.

1440p and 4K: Only with FSR

At 1440p, acceptable FPS (30-40) can be achieved in less demanding titles (CS2, Dota 2). For 4K, the FSR Performance mode is required, but even then, comfortable gaming is only possible in indie games.

Ray Tracing: Experimental Mode

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider with RT at low settings — 25-30 fps. Without FSR, this mode is nearly unplayable, but with FSR Quality, FPS rises to 40.

4. Professional Tasks: Not Just Gaming

Video Editing and Rendering

In DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro, the 680M handles editing 1080p/4K (projects without complex effects). Acceleration through OpenCL and Vulkan is available, but for rendering in Blender, it's better to opt for discrete GPUs.

Scientific Calculations

Support for OpenCL allows the use of 680M in machine learning (basic level) or simulations. However, its 12 CUs are weaker than even the lower-end NVIDIA RTX 3050 (20 CUs + Tensor Cores).

Conclusion: A solution for light professional tasks but not for heavy workloads.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP and Recommendations

The Radeon 680M is integrated into processors with a TDP of 15-28 W. Under gaming load, system consumption reaches 50-60 W. For stable operation, a laptop with:

- A dual-fan cooler.

- Heat pipes covering both the CPU and GPU.

Tip: Avoid ultra-thin models for long gaming sessions — throttling may occur.

6. Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA GeForce MX570

- Pros of MX570: Better optimization for creative applications (CUDA), DLSS.

- Cons: Higher price, requires more power.

Intel Arc A350M

- Comparable gaming performance, but Intel drivers are less stable.

Conclusion: The 680M excels in energy efficiency and price but falls short in specialized tasks.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply

For laptops with the 680M, a standard 65-90 W adapter is sufficient.

Compatibility

The card works only in systems with Ryzen 6000/7000 series processors. Ideally, 16 GB of RAM (preferably in dual-channel mode) is recommended.

Drivers

Use Adrenalin Edition: regular updates add optimizations for new games. Disable "Variable Brightness" in settings — it reduces lag.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Best-in-class energy efficiency.

- Support for FSR 3.0 and Ray Tracing.

- Affordable laptop prices ($600-800).

Cons:

- Limited performance at 4K.

- Dependence on RAM speed.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the Radeon 680M Suitable For?

This graphics card is an ideal choice for:

- Students and office users who need a lightweight laptop with gaming capabilities.

- Gamers willing to play on medium settings in Full HD.

- Travelers valuing battery life (up to 8 hours in work mode).

If you render 3D models or want ultra settings in AAA games, consider discrete GPUs. However, for a balance of price and capability, the Radeon 680M remains one of the best integrated solutions in 2025.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Integrated

Launch Date

January 2022

Model Name

Radeon 680M

Generation

Navi II IGP

Base Clock

2000MHz

Boost Clock

2200MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x8

Transistors

13,100 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

6 nm

Architecture

RDNA 2.0

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.

70.40 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.

105.6 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.

6.758 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.

211.2 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.

3.311 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.

768

L1 Cache

128 KB per Array

L2 Cache

2MB

TDP

50W

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

2.0

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.