Radeon HD 5850 vs Radeon HD 6970M

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 6970M. 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 5850 and Radeon HD 6970M. 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 6970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6970M 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 6970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 6970M
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 75 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 5850 has 101% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 6970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon HD 6970M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6970M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 6970M are build with Terascale 2 architecture.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 5850 is 45 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 6970M are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 5850 is 1100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 9−10 10−12
ultra / 1080p 5−6 6−7
QHD / 1440p 0−1 1−2
low / 720p 21−24 24−27
medium / 1080p 12−14 14−16
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 16% more, than Radeon HD 5850.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 6970M
Architecture Terascale 2 Terascale 2
Code name Cypress Blackcomb XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 30 September 2009 6 January 2011
Pipelines 1440 960
Core clock speed 725 MHz 680 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 52.20 32.64
Floating-point performance 2,088.0 gflops 1,305.6 gflops
Length 241 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2000 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 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
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 118 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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