Radeon HD 7850M vs Radeon HD 8970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7850M and Radeon HD 8970M, 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 7850M stacks up against Radeon HD 8970M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7850M and Radeon HD 8970M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 7850M and Radeon HD 8970M 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 7850M or Radeon HD 8970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7850M Radeon HD 8970M
Power consumption (TDP) 40 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 8970M has 150% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 8970M has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7850M and Radeon HD 8970M are build with GCN architecture.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 175 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850M.
  • Radeon HD 7850M and Radeon HD 8970M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 800 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 6−7 20−22
ultra / 1080p 3−4 12−14
QHD / 1440p 0−1 6−7
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 14−16 35−40
medium / 1080p 7−8 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 8970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 200% more, than Radeon HD 7850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7850M Radeon HD 8970M
Architecture GCN GCN
Code name Heathrow Pro Neptune
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 24 April 2012 15 May 2013
Pipelines 640 1280
Core clock speed 675 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,500 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.00 72.00
Floating-point performance 864.0 gflops 2,304 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 64 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_1) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 273 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
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