Radeon HD 6870 vs Radeon HD 7850M

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 7850M 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 6870 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 7850M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

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 6870 Radeon HD 7850M
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 40 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6870 has 277% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Radeon HD 6870 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 6870.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7850M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7850M - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7850M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7850M is 2950 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 6−7
ultra / 1080p 6−7 3−4
QHD / 1440p 1−2 0−1
low / 720p 24−27 14−16
medium / 1080p 12−14 7−8
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 75% more, than Radeon HD 7850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon HD 7850M
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name RV940 Barts Heathrow Pro
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 22 October 2010 24 April 2012
Pipelines 1120 640
Core clock speed 675 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 27.00
Floating-point performance 2,016.0 gflops 864.0 gflops
Length 220 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1050 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 64 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) 213 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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