Radeon HD 6950M vs Radeon R9 280

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon R9 280 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 Radeon HD 6950M will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 280 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6950M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6950M 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 6950M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon R9 280
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 200 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280 has 300% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 280 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 280 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 280 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 280 - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 280 is 350 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 35−40
ultra / 1080p 5−6 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 20−22 60−65
medium / 1080p 10−12 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 272% more, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon R9 280
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name Blackcomb Pro Tahiti
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 6 January 2011 4 March 2014
Pipelines 960 1792
Core clock speed 580 MHz
Boost Clock 933 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.84 104.5
Floating-point performance 1,113.6 gflops 3,344 gflops
Length 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 240 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 408 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 21.5 Mh/s
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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