GeForce GTX 870M vs Radeon HD 5850

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 870M and Radeon HD 5850, 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 870M stacks up against Radeon HD 5850, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 870M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GTX 870M 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 GTX 870M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 870M Radeon HD 5850
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 151 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 5850 has 51% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 870M.
  • GeForce GTX 870M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 5850 uses PCIe 2.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 870M has 5 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • GeForce GTX 870M is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 5850 - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 870M is build with Kepler architecture, and Radeon HD 5850 - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 870M is 216 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • GeForce GTX 870M is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 5850 - by 40 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 9−10
ultra / 1080p 10−11 5−6
QHD / 1440p 4−5 0−1
low / 720p 35−40 21−24
medium / 1080p 21−24 12−14
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 870M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 75% more, than Radeon HD 5850.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 870M Radeon HD 5850
Architecture Kepler Terascale 2
Code name N15P-GT Cypress
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 12 March 2014 30 September 2009
Pipelines 1344 1440
Core clock speed 941 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 967 MHz
Transistor count 3,540 million 2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 108.3 52.20
Floating-point performance 2,599 gflops 2,088.0 gflops
Length 241 mm
Memory bus width 192 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 120.0 GB/s 128.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.1 5.0
OpenGL 4.5 4.4
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1344
Bus support PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0
SLI options +
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 82 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Standard memory configuration GDDR5
eDP 1.2 signal support Up to 3840x2160
LVDS signal support Up to 1920x1200
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support Up to 3840x2160
HDCP content protection +
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI +
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
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