GeForce GTX 280 vs Radeon HD 7850M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 280 and Radeon HD 7850M, 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 GTX 280 stacks up against Radeon HD 7850M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7850M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7850M 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 Radeon HD 7850M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon HD 7850M
Power consumption (TDP) 236 Watt 40 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 6-pin & 8-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
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  • GeForce GTX 280 has 490% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7850M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7850M has 1 GB more memory, than GeForce GTX 280.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7850M - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is build with Tesla 2.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 7850M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 280 is 621 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • GeForce GTX 280 is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7850M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7850M is 2893 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 280.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 1−2 6−7
ultra / 1080p 0−1 3−4
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 12−14 14−16
medium / 1080p 3−4 7−8
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7850M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 50% more, than GeForce GTX 280.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 280 Radeon HD 7850M
Architecture Tesla 2.0 GCN
Code name GT200 Heathrow Pro
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 16 June 2008 24 April 2012
Pipelines 240 640
Core clock speed 1296 MHz 675 MHz
Transistor count 1,400 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 48.2 billion/sec 27.00
Floating-point performance 622.1 gflops 864.0 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
Memory bus width 512 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1107 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 141.7 GB/s 64 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.1 (10_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 2.1 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 240
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Laptop size large
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