Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon HD 6850

In this comparison between Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6850 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 5870 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 6850 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5870 Radeon HD 6850
Power consumption (TDP) 188 Watt 127 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 5870 has 48% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 2.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6850 have maximum RAM of 1 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6850 are build with TeraScale 2 architecture.
  • Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6850 are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is 84 mm longer, than Radeon HD 6850.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 9−10
ultra / 1080p 6−7 5−6
QHD / 1440p 1−2 0−1
low / 720p 24−27 21−24
medium / 1080p 14−16 12−14
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 16% more, than Radeon HD 6850.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5870 Radeon HD 6850
Architecture TeraScale 2 TeraScale 2
Code name Cypress Barts
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 23 September 2009 21 October 2010
Pipelines 1600 960
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 37.20
Floating-point performance 2,720.0 gflops 1,488.0 gflops
Length 282 mm 198 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 128.0 GB/s
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A
Bus support AGP
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 139 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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