Radeon HD 6850M vs Quadro K420
Aggregate performance score
Radeon HD 6850M outperforms Quadro K420 by a minimal 1% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 864 | 860 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.08 | 0.13 |
| Architecture | Kepler (2012−2018) | Terascale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | GK107 | Granville Pro/LP |
| Market segment | Workstation | Laptop |
| Release date | 22 July 2014 (9 years ago) | 6 January 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $96.67 | no data |
| Current price | $402 (4.2x MSRP) | $338 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
HD 6850M has 63% better value for money than Quadro K420.
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 | 192 | 800 |
| Core clock speed | 876 MHz | 575 / 675 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,270 million | 1,040 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 41 Watt | 50 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 14.02 | 27.00 |
| Floating-point performance | 336.4 gflops | 1,080.0 gflops |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on Quadro K420 and Radeon HD 6850M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). 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 | no data | large |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | 160 mm | no data |
| Width | 1" (2.5 cm) | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | no data |
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 | 128 Bit | DDR3, GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB/2 GB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1782 MHz | 800 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | Up to 29 GB/s | 25.6 GB/s |
| Shared memory | no data | - |
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 | DVI-I DP | No outputs |
| Number of simultaneous displays | 4 | no data |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| 3D Vision Pro | + | no data |
| Mosaic | + | no data |
| nView Desktop Management | + | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | + | N/A |
| CUDA | 3.0 | no data |
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 | 18−20
−11.1%
| 20
+11.1%
|
| Full HD | 21−24
−14.3%
| 24
+14.3%
|
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 1.93 | 1.95 |
| Recency | 22 July 2014 | 6 January 2011 |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 41 Watt | 50 Watt |
Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Quadro K420 and Radeon HD 6850M.
Be aware that Quadro K420 is a workstation card while Radeon HD 6850M is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
