Radeon HD 4870 X2 vs Radeon HD 7850M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 4870 X2 and Radeon HD 7850M, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the Radeon HD 4870 X2 stacks up against Radeon HD 7850M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7850M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7850M 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 7850M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 4870 X2 Radeon HD 7850M
Power consumption (TDP) 286 Watt 40 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 4870 X2 has 615% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Radeon HD 4870 X2 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7850M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7850M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.
  • Radeon HD 4870 X2 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7850M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 4870 X2 is build with TeraScale architecture, and Radeon HD 7850M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 4870 X2 is 25 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Radeon HD 4870 X2 is manufactured by 55 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7850M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7850M is 400 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 3−4 6−7
ultra / 1080p 1−2 3−4
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 14−16 14−16
medium / 1080p 6−7 7−8
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7850M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 33% more, than Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 4870 X2 Radeon HD 7850M
Architecture TeraScale GCN
Code name R700 Heathrow Pro
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 12 August 2008 24 April 2012
Pipelines 800 640
Core clock speed 700 MHz 675 MHz
Transistor count 956 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 55 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 28.00 27.00
Floating-point performance 2x 1,120.0 gflops 864.0 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 3600 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 64 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 10.1 (10_1) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 4.1 5.1
OpenGL 3.3 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
Laptop size large
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