Radeon HD 6850M vs GeForce 940M

Place in performance ranking	744	854
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.12	0.13
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)	Terascale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	N16S-GT-S/B	Granville Pro/LP
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	12 March 2015 (9 years ago)	6 January 2011 (13 years ago)
Current price	$879	$338

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 6850M has 8% better value for money than GeForce 940M.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	384	800
Core clock speed	1072 MHz	575 / 675 MHz
Boost clock speed	1176 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	1,870 million	1,040 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	28.22	27.00
Floating-point performance	903.2 gflops	1,080.0 gflops

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce 940M and Radeon HD 6850M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	medium sized	large
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 2.0 x16

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR3	DDR3, GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	2000 MHz	800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	14.4 GB/s	25.6 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors

No outputs

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GPU Boost	2.0	no data
Optimus	+	no data
GameWorks	+	no data

API compatibility

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (11_0)	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	5.0
OpenGL	4.5	4.4
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	N/A
CUDA	+	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GeForce 940M 2.90
+48%

HD 6850M 1.96

GeForce 940M outperforms Radeon HD 6850M by 48% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GeForce 940M 7531
+20.6%

HD 6850M 6246

GeForce 940M outperforms Radeon HD 6850M by 21% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GeForce 940M 2406
+63.7%

HD 6850M 1470

GeForce 940M outperforms Radeon HD 6850M by 64% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	27−30 +35%	20 −35%
Full HD	19 −36.8%	26 +36.8%
1440p	96 +60%	60−65 −60%
4K	20 +66.7%	12−14 −66.7%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7
+50%

4−5

−50%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Battlefield 5	17 +750%	2−3 −750%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +20%	10−11 −20%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Far Cry 5	11 +1000%	1−2 −1000%
Far Cry New Dawn	11 +1000%	1−2 −1000%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
Hitman 3	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10 +25%	8−9 −25%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Battlefield 5	13 +550%	2−3 −550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +20%	10−11 −20%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Far Cry 5	10 +900%	1−2 −900%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
Hitman 3	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Metro Exodus	2 −50%	3−4 +50%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 +12.5%	8−9 −12.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10 +100%	5−6 −100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Battlefield 5	11 +450%	2−3 −450%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Far Cry 5	10 +900%	1−2 −900%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	6 +20%	5−6 −20%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Hitman 3	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Metro Exodus	1−2	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	0−1	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2	0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Hitman 3	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2	0−1
Far Cry 5	2 −50%	3−4 +50%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%

This is how GeForce 940M and HD 6850M compete in popular games:

GeForce 940M is 35% faster than HD 6850M in 900p
HD 6850M is 36.8% faster than GeForce 940M in 1080p
GeForce 940M is 60% faster than HD 6850M in 1440p
GeForce 940M is 66.7% faster than HD 6850M in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GeForce 940M is 1000% faster than the HD 6850M.
in Metro Exodus, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the HD 6850M is 50% faster than the GeForce 940M.

All in all, in popular games:

GeForce 940M is ahead in 38 tests (81%)
HD 6850M is ahead in 2 tests (4%)
there's a draw in 7 tests (15%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.90	1.96
Recency	12 March 2015	6 January 2011
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	1 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	50 Watt