GeForce GTX 850M vs Radeon HD 8870M

In this comparison between GeForce GTX 850M and Radeon HD 8870M 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 GeForce GTX 850M will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 8870M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

GeForce GTX 850M and Radeon HD 8870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: GeForce GTX 850M and Radeon HD 8870M 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 GeForce GTX 850M or Radeon HD 8870M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 850M Radeon HD 8870M
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • GeForce GTX 850M has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 8870M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 850M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 8870M - with GCN.
  • GeForce GTX 850M and Radeon HD 8870M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 12−14 7−8
ultra / 1080p 8−9 4−5
QHD / 1440p 2−3 0−1
low / 720p 27−30 18−20
medium / 1080p 16−18 9−10
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 850M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 60% more, than Radeon HD 8870M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 850M Radeon HD 8870M
Architecture Maxwell GCN
Code name N15P-GT Venus
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 12 March 2014 18 December 2012
Pipelines 640 640
Core clock speed 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 1,870 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 36.08 31.00
Floating-point performance 1,155 gflops 992.0 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 80.0 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.5 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 640
Bus support PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0
SLI options +
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 153 Mh/s 107 Mh/s
Laptop size medium sized large
Standard memory configuration DDR3 or GDDR5
eDP 1.2 signal support Up to 3840x2160
LVDS signal support Up to 1920x1200
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support Up to 3840x2160
HDCP content protection +
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI +
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 1.8 Mh/s
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