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    Radeon HD 6850M vs Radeon R9 M290X

    In this comparison between Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M290X 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 M290X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.
    Radeon HD 6850M Check Price
    Radeon R9 M290X Check Price

    Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M290X are Laptop Graphics Cards

    Note: Radeon HD 6850M and Radeon R9 M290X 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 Radeon HD 6850M or Radeon R9 M290X here:

    Radeon HD 6850M Laptops
    Radeon R9 M290X Laptops

    Main Specs

      Radeon HD 6850M Radeon R9 M290X
    Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 100 Watt
    Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
    Supplementary power connectors None
    Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
    Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
    Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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    • Radeon R9 M290X has 100% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6850M.
    • Radeon HD 6850M is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
    • Radeon R9 M290X has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6850M.
    • Both cards are used in Laptops.
    • Radeon HD 6850M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 M290X - with GCN.
    • Core clock speed of Radeon R9 M290X is 275 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.
    • Radeon HD 6850M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M290X - by 28 nm process technology.
    • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M290X is 400 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6850M.

    Game benchmarks

    high / 1080p 2−3 16−18
    ultra / 1080p 0−1 10−11
    QHD / 1440p 0−1 4−5
    4K / 2160p − 4−5
    low / 720p 12−14 30−35
    medium / 1080p 3−4 20−22
    The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 M290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 283% more, than Radeon HD 6850M.

    Full Specs

      Radeon HD 6850M Radeon R9 M290X
    Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
    Code name Granville Pro/LP Neptune
    Type Laptop Laptop
    Release date 6 January 2011 7 January 2014
    Pipelines 800 1280
    Core clock speed 575 / 675 MHz 850 MHz
    Boost Clock 900 MHz
    Transistor count 1,040 million 2,800 million
    Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
    Texture fill rate 27.00 72.00
    Floating-point performance 1,080.0 gflops 2,304 gflops
    Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
    Memory clock speed 800 MHz 1200 MHz
    Memory bandwidth 25.6 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
    Shared memory - -
    DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
    Shader Model 5.0 5.1
    OpenGL 4.4 4.4
    OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
    Vulkan N/A
    FreeSync +
    Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
    Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 300 Mh/s
    Laptop size large large
    Eyefinity +
    HD3D +
    PowerTune +
    DualGraphics +
    ZeroCore +
    Switchable graphics +
    Mantle +
    Compute units 20
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