Radeon HD 6950M vs Radeon RX 540

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon RX 540 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 RX 540 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon RX 540 are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6950M and Radeon RX 540 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 6950M or Radeon RX 540 here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon RX 540
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 65 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs
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  • Radeon RX 540 has 30% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon RX 540 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon RX 540 has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6950M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon RX 540 - with Polaris.
  • Radeon HD 6950M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon RX 540 - by 14 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon RX 540 is 5100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 14−16
ultra / 1080p 5−6 8−9
QHD / 1440p 0−1 3−4
low / 720p 20−22 30−33
medium / 1080p 10−12 18−20
The average gaming FPS of Radeon RX 540 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 63% more, than Radeon HD 6950M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6950M Radeon RX 540
Architecture Terascale 2 Polaris
Code name Blackcomb Pro Polaris 12
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 21 March 2017
Pipelines 960 512
Core clock speed 580 MHz
Boost Clock 1219 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 14 nm
Texture fill rate 27.84 39.01
Floating-point performance 1,113.6 gflops 1,248 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 96 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12.0
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A
FreeSync +
Laptop size large large
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