Radeon HD 5850 vs Radeon R9 M280X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon R9 M280X 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 R9 M280X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon R9 M280X is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon R9 M280X 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 R9 M280X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon R9 M280X
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 Not Listed
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 5850 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M280X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R9 M280X - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 M280X - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon R9 M280X is 175 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M280X - by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 9−10 2−3
ultra / 1080p 5−6 1−2
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 21−24 14−16
medium / 1080p 12−14 4−5
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5850 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 140% more, than Radeon R9 M280X.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon R9 M280X
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Cypress Saturn XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 30 September 2009 1 February 2015
Pipelines 1440 896
Core clock speed 725 MHz 900 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 2,080 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 52.20 61.60
Floating-point performance 2,088.0 gflops 1,792 gflops
Length 241 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s 96 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 6.3
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
Vulkan N/A
FreeSync +
Bus support Not Listed
Laptop size large
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
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