GeForce GT 650M vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GT 650M and Radeon HD 7870 XT, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GT 650M stacks up against Radeon HD 7870 XT, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GT 650M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GT 650M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with GeForce GT 650M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GT 650M Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type DDR3\GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7870 XT has 311% more power consumption, than GeForce GT 650M.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GT 650M and Radeon HD 7870 XT have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • GeForce GT 650M is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GT 650M is build with Kepler architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • GeForce GT 650M and Radeon HD 7870 XT are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 4200 MHz higher, than GeForce GT 650M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 3−4 35−40
ultra / 1080p 1−2 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 14−16 60−65
medium / 1080p 5−6 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 583% more, than GeForce GT 650M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GT 650M Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture Kepler GCN 1.0
Code name N13E-GE Tahiti
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 22 March 2012 19 November 2012
Pipelines 384 1536
Core clock speed 925 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz 975 MHz
Transistor count 1,270 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 93.60
Floating-point performance 652.8 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 128bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1800 - 4000 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 192.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 API 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.5 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 384
Bus support PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0
HDMI +
HDCP +
Maximum VGA resolution Up to 2048x1536
3D Blu-Ray +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 21 Mh/s 346 Mh/s
Laptop size medium sized
Optimus +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.5 Mh/s
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