Radeon HD 6850M vs Radeon R9 380

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 380 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 6850M will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 380 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

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 R9 380
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 190 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2 x 6-pin
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 380 has 280% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 380 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 380 has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6850M.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 380 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 380 - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6850M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 380 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 380 is 170 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 2−3 35−40
ultra / 1080p 0−1 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 12−14 60−65
medium / 1080p 3−4 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 380 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 683% more, than Radeon HD 6850M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6850M Radeon R9 380
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Granville Pro/LP Tonga Pro
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 6 January 2011 26 June 2015
Pipelines 800 1792
Core clock speed 575 / 675 MHz
Boost Clock 970 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 27.00 108.6
Floating-point performance 1,080.0 gflops 3,476 gflops
Length 221 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 800 MHz 970 MHz
Memory bandwidth 25.6 GB/s 182.4 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 6.3
OpenGL 4.4 4.5
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan N/A +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.48 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 404 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
TrueAudio +
ZeroCore +
Mantle +
Design reference
Bridgeless CrossFire +
Number of Eyefinity displays 6
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
VCE +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.66 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 18 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 168.45 Sol/s
Compute units 28
Form factor full height / full length / dual slot
High bandwidth memory (HBM) -
LiquidVR +
FRTC +
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