Radeon HD 7850 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT, 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 7850 stacks up against Radeon HD 7870 XT, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7850 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 225 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7850 has 21% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT are build with GCN 1.0 architecture.
  • Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7870 XT is 57 mm longer, than Radeon HD 7850.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 4800 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 18−20 35−40
ultra / 1080p 10−12 21−24
QHD / 1440p 5−6 16−18
4K / 2160p 4−5 10−11
low / 720p 35−40 60−65
medium / 1080p 24−27 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 88% more, than Radeon HD 7850.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7850 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN 1.0
Code name Pitcairn Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 5 March 2012 19 November 2012
Pipelines 1024 1536
Core clock speed 925 MHz
Boost Clock 1000 MHz 975 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 55.04 93.60
Floating-point performance 1,761 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 210 mm 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1200 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 192.0 GB/s
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 249 Mh/s 346 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 12.5 Mh/s 14.5 Mh/s
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