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AMD Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition

AMD Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition: An Overview of an Outdated Solution for Professionals and Enthusiasts

April 2025

Introduction

The AMD Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition is a specialized solution designed for Apple computers in the mid-2010s. Despite its age, it remains of interest to owners of older Macs who prioritize compatibility and stability. In this article, we will explore whether the card is still relevant in 2025 and who might find it useful.

Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The R9 M395X is based on AMD's 3rd generation Graphics Core Next (GCN) microarchitecture. This solution focuses on enhancing parallel computing, which is beneficial for rendering and professional tasks.

Process Technology: The card is manufactured using a 28-nm process technology—a standard of its time but outdated by 2025. Modern GPUs utilize 5–7 nm processes, providing greater energy efficiency.

Unique Features:

- Mantle API (predecessor to Vulkan) — optimized for gaming.

- FreeSync — adaptive synchronization to eliminate screen tearing.

- FidelityFX — a post-processing suite (contrast sharpening, shaders), but lacks support for DLSS-like features or ray tracing (RTX).

Conclusion: The GCN 3 architecture provides basic performance but cannot compete with modern RDNA 3/4 or NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architectures.

Memory: Type, Size, and Impact on Performance

Memory Type: GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus—a common standard for its time.

Size: 4 GB. This is adequate for working at 1080p, but by 2025, many games and applications require at least 6–8 GB, especially at 4K.

Bandwidth: 160 GB/s. In comparison, modern cards with GDDR6X achieve over 900 GB/s, while HBM3 can reach up to 2 TB/s.

Impact on Performance:

- Gaming: A bottleneck in modern projects due to the small size and low speed.

- Professional Tasks: 4 GB limits rendering of complex 3D scenes or processing of 8K video.

Gaming Performance

Methodology: Testing conducted in macOS (via Boot Camp) at medium settings.

Sample FPS (1080p):

- CS2: 60–70 FPS (no anti-aliasing).

- The Witcher 3: 35–45 FPS (medium settings).

- Cyberpunk 2077: 20–25 FPS (low settings, no ray tracing).

Supported Resolutions:

- 1080p: The only comfortable option.

- 1440p and 4K: Not recommended—performance drops to 15–25 FPS even in older games.

Ray Tracing: Absent. Hardware implementation of RT appeared only with RDNA 2 (2020).

Professional Tasks

Video Editing:

- Support for OpenCL 2.0 and Metal 1.2 enables work in Final Cut Pro X, but 4K rendering can take 3–4 times longer than on modern GPUs.

3D Modeling:

- In Autodesk Maya or Blender, the card can handle simple projects, but complex scenes will lag.

Scientific Calculations:

- OpenCL compatibility is useful for MATLAB or SPECviewperf, but performance is 2–3 times lower than that of the Radeon Pro W6600.

CUDA: Not supported—this is exclusive to NVIDIA.

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

TDP: 125W—a moderate figure, but problematic for compact Macs (e.g., iMac 2015).

Cooling:

- The iMac uses a hybrid system (fan + heatsink) that accumulates dust over time.

- Recommendations:

- Clean the cooler every 6–12 months.

- Use external cooling pads for MacBook Pro (if the card is installed in an eGPU).

Casing: Only suitable for compatible Macs. In PCs or modern systems, an adapter is required, which may not always be stable.

Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M (2014):

- Comparable gaming performance, but CUDA cores are advantageous for rendering.

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (2020):

- RDNA 1, 8 GB GDDR6—40–60% faster in gaming and 3D tasks.

Modern Analogs (2025):

- Radeon RX 7600M XT: 1080p Ultra at 60+ FPS, support for FSR 3.0 and RT.

- NVIDIA RTX 4050 Mobile: DLSS 3.5, half the power consumption.

Conclusion: The R9 M395X also lags behind even budget newcomers of 2025.

Practical Tips

Power Supply: For eGPU setups—a minimum of 450W (with headroom).

Compatibility:

- macOS: Only older versions (up to macOS Monterey).

- Windows: Via Boot Camp, but drivers are updated only until 2021.

Drivers:

- Apple discontinued support in 2022.

- Use the latest available version (Adrenalin 21.5.1)—conflicts may arise with new software.

Price: New devices are unavailable. The card cost $400–500 in 2015.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Reliable operation in "native" Macs.

- Support for FreeSync for smooth visuals.

- Sufficient for basic tasks and older games.

Cons:

- Outdated architecture and process technology.

- Lack of ray tracing and upscaling.

- Limited support for drivers.

Final Verdict: Who Is the R9 M395X Suitable For?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Owners of older Macs who do not plan to upgrade.

2. Retro hardware enthusiasts building a collection.

3. Users who value stability in basic tasks (office work, web browsing, light editing).

Upgrade Alternatives:

- Mac mini M3 (2025) with built-in GPU equivalent to RX 6600.

- eGPU with Radeon RX 7600 XT (~$350) for owners of Thunderbolt 3/4.

In 2025, the R9 M395X is a niche solution relevant only in specific scenarios. For serious tasks, it is better to choose modern alternatives.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

May 2015

Model Name

Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition

Generation

Crystal System

Bus Interface

MXM-B (3.0)

Transistors

5,000 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.

128

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 3.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

4GB

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.

256bit

Memory Clock

1365MHz

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.

174.7 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.

29.09 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.

116.4 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.

3.723 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.

232.7 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.

3.797 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.

2048

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

512KB

TDP

250W

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

OpenCL Version

2.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.3

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

3.797 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon Pro 570X

4.039 +6.4%

Arc A530M

3.914 +3.1%

Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition

3.797

Tesla K20c

3.594 -5.3%

Radeon R9 380

3.406 -10.3%