Radeon HD 6850 vs Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire. Here you can take a closer look at graphics cards specs, such as core clock speed, memory type and size, display connectors, etc. The price, overall benchmark and gaming performances are usually defining factors when it comes to choosing between Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire. Make sure that the graphics card has compatible dimensions and will properly fit in your new or current computer case. Also these graphics cards may have different system power recommendations, so take that into consideration and upgrade your PSU if necessary.

Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire 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 7970M Crossfire here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6850 Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
Power consumption (TDP) 127 Watt 200 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire has 57% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850.
  • Radeon HD 6850 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6850 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6850 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire - by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 9−10 35−40
ultra / 1080p 5−6 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 21−24 60−65
medium / 1080p 12−14 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 241% more, than Radeon HD 6850.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850 Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
Architecture TeraScale 2 GCN
Code name Barts Wimbledon XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 21 October 2010 1 May 2012
Pipelines 960 2560
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 37.20
Floating-point performance 1,488.0 gflops
Length 198 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 2x 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.0
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.4
OpenCL 1.2
Bus support AGP
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 139 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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