Radeon HD 6850M vs Radeon HD 7870

When choosing between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 7870, it is worth examining the specifications of the models in detail. Do they meet the recommended requirements of modern games and software? Storage capacity, form factor, TDP, available ports, warranty and manufacturer support are all important. For example, the size of a PC case can limit the maximum thickness and length of the card. Often, instead of the factory overclocked card and RGB backlight, it is better to choose a reference model with a more efficient GPU. And make sure that your current power supply unit has the correct connection pins (using adapters is not recommended). This GPUs compare tool is meant to help you to choose the best graphics card for your build. Let's find out the difference between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon HD 7870.

Radeon HD 6850M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6850M 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 6850M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon HD 7870
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 175 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7870 has 250% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 7870 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7870 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 is 425 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 is 4000 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 2−3 24−27
ultra / 1080p 0−1 14−16
QHD / 1440p 0−1 9−10
4K / 2160p 6−7
low / 720p 12−14 45−50
medium / 1080p 3−4 30−33
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 466% more, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon HD 7870
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Granville Pro/LP Pitcairn XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 6 January 2011 5 March 2012
Pipelines 800 1280
Core clock speed 575 / 675 MHz 1000 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 2800 Million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.00
Floating-point performance 1,080.0 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 800 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 25.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.4
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan N/A
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.39 kh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.63 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 16.6 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 145 Sol/s
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