Radeon HD 6850M vs Radeon HD 8790M

When choosing between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 8790M, it is worth examining the specifications of the models in detail. Do they meet the recommended requirements of modern games and software? Storage capacity, form factor, TDP, available ports, warranty and manufacturer support are all important. For example, the size of a PC case can limit the maximum thickness and length of the card. Often, instead of the factory overclocked card and RGB backlight, it is better to choose a reference model with a more efficient GPU. And make sure that your current power supply unit has the correct connection pins (using adapters is not recommended). This GPUs compare tool is meant to help you to choose the best graphics card for your build. Let's find out the difference between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 8790M.

Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 8790M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 8790M are only used in laptop graphics. They have 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 6850M or Radeon HD 8790M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon HD 8790M
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-A (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6850M is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 8790M uses MXM-A (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon HD 8790M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 8790M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 8790M is 275 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8790M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8790M is 3700 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 2−3 3−4
ultra / 1080p 0−1 1−2
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 12−14 14−16
medium / 1080p 3−4 6−7
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 8790M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 33% more, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon HD 8790M
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Granville Pro/LP Mars XTX
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 16 November 2012
Pipelines 800 384
Core clock speed 575 / 675 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 950 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.00 21.60
Floating-point performance 1,080.0 gflops 691.2 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 800 MHz 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 25.6 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
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 80 Mh/s
Laptop size large medium sized
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