Radeon HD 5850 vs Radeon HD 7870M

In this comparison between Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 7870M you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 5850 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 7870M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 7870M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7870M 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 7870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 7870M
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 45 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 5850 has 235% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870M.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7870M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7870M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 75 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 2000 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 9−10 6−7
ultra / 1080p 5−6 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 21−24 16−18
medium / 1080p 12−14 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5850 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 33% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 7870M
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Cypress Heathrow XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 30 September 2009 24 April 2012
Pipelines 1440 640
Core clock speed 725 MHz 800 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 52.20 32.00
Floating-point performance 2,088.0 gflops 1,024 gflops
Length 241 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 2000 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s 64 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
Laptop size large
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