Radeon HD 7870 vs Radeon R9 M485X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon R9 M485X, 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 7870 stacks up against Radeon R9 M485X, check out specs charts below.

Radeon R9 M485X is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon R9 M485X 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 R9 M485X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7870 Radeon R9 M485X
Power consumption (TDP) 175 Watt 250 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 8 GB MB
Display Connectors No outputs
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon R9 M485X has 42% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870.
  • Radeon R9 M485X has 6 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7870.
  • Radeon HD 7870 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R9 M485X - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7870 is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon R9 M485X - with GCN 3.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 is 277 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M485X.
  • Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon R9 M485X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M485X is 200 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 24−27 24−27
ultra / 1080p 14−16 14−16
QHD / 1440p 9−10 10−11
4K / 2160p 6−7 6−7
low / 720p 45−50 45−50
medium / 1080p 30−33 30−35
Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon R9 M485X have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7870 Radeon R9 M485X
Architecture GCN GCN 3
Code name Pitcairn XT Amethyst
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 5 March 2012 14 May 2016
Pipelines 1280 2048
Core clock speed 1000 MHz 723 MHz
Transistor count 2800 Million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 92.54
Floating-point performance 2,961 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 5000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 160.0 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 6.3
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131
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
  Check Price Check Price