Radeon HD 6850 X2 vs Radeon HD 6990M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 6850 X2 and Radeon HD 6990M, 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 Radeon HD 6850 X2 stacks up against Radeon HD 6990M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 6990M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6990M 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 6990M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6850 X2 Radeon HD 6990M
Power consumption (TDP) 254 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 2x 8-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 has 154% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6990M.
  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 6990M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 and Radeon HD 6990M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6990M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 6990M - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 6850 X2 is 85 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6990M.
  • Radeon HD 6850 X2 and Radeon HD 6990M are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 6850 X2 is 3300 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6990M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 12−14 14−16
ultra / 1080p 7−8 8−9
QHD / 1440p 2−3 3−4
low / 720p 27−30 30−33
medium / 1080p 16−18 16−18
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6990M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 15% more, than Radeon HD 6850 X2.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850 X2 Radeon HD 6990M
Architecture TeraScale 2 Terascale 2
Code name Barts Blackcomb XTX
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 19 September 2011 12 July 2011
Pipelines 960 1120
Core clock speed 800 MHz 715 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 38.40 40.04
Floating-point performance 2x 1,536.0 gflops 1,601.6 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4200 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A N/A
Laptop size large
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