Radeon HD 6850M vs Radeon R9 M390X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M390X 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 6850M will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 M390X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M390X are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M390X 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 R9 M390X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon R9 M390X
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon R9 M390X has 100% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M390X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M390X has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 M390X - with GCN 3.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon R9 M390X is 148 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M390X - by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 2−3 21−24
ultra / 1080p 0−1 12−14
QHD / 1440p 0−1 8−9
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 12−14 40−45
medium / 1080p 3−4 27−30
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 M390X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 416% more, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon R9 M390X
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 3
Code name Granville Pro/LP Amethyst (XT) / Tonga
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 9 June 2015
Pipelines 800 2048
Core clock speed 575 / 675 MHz 723 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.00 92.54
Floating-point performance 1,080.0 gflops 2,961 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 25.6 GB/s 160.0 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 PCIe 3.0
Laptop size large large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
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