Radeon HD 6950 vs Radeon HD 8870M

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 8870M 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 6950 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 8870M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 8870M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 8870M 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 8870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6950 Radeon HD 8870M
Power consumption (TDP) 500 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6950 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 8870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 8870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon HD 6950 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 8870M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6950 is build with TeraScale 3 architecture, and Radeon HD 8870M - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6950 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8870M is 3250 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 14−16 7−8
ultra / 1080p 8−9 4−5
QHD / 1440p 3−4 0−1
low / 720p 27−30 18−20
medium / 1080p 16−18 9−10
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6950 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 70% more, than Radeon HD 8870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6950 Radeon HD 8870M
Architecture TeraScale 3 GCN
Code name Cayman Venus
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 14 December 2010 18 December 2012
Pipelines 1408 640
Core clock speed 725 MHz
Boost Clock 800 MHz 775 MHz
Transistor count 2,640 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 70.40 31.00
Floating-point performance 2,252.8 gflops 992.0 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1250 MHz 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 72 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 244 Mh/s 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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