Radeon HD 6950M vs Radeon HD 7870M

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon HD 7870M. 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 6950M and Radeon HD 7870M. 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 6950M and Radeon HD 7870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon HD 7870M 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 6950M or Radeon HD 7870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon HD 7870M
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 45 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6950M has 11% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 7870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon HD 7870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 220 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 3100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 6−7
ultra / 1080p 5−6 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 20−22 16−18
medium / 1080p 10−12 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6950M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 22% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon HD 7870M
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Blackcomb Pro Heathrow XT
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 24 April 2012
Pipelines 960 640
Core clock speed 580 MHz 800 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.84 32.00
Floating-point performance 1,113.6 gflops 1,024 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 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
Laptop size large large
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