Radeon RX 6850M XT vs HD 6490

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot rated75
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiencyno data19.00
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code nameRedwoodNavi 22
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date4 July 2011 (13 years ago)4 January 2022 (2 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores3202560
Core clock speed550 MHz2321 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2581 MHz
Number of transistors627 million17,200 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)39 Watt165 Watt
Texture fill rate8.800413.0
Floating-point processing power0.352 TFLOPS13.21 TFLOPS
ROPs864
TMUs16160
Ray Tracing Coresno data40

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length165 mmno data
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone

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 typeDDR2GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount1 GB12 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed500 MHz2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth16 GB/s384.0 GB/s
Shared memoryno 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGANo outputs
HDMI+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.2 (11_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.5
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.22.1
VulkanN/A1.3

Pros & cons summary


Recency 4 July 2011 4 January 2022
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 12 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 7 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 39 Watt 165 Watt

HD 6490 has 323.1% lower power consumption.

RX 6850M XT, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 10 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 471.4% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6490 and Radeon RX 6850M XT. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6490 is a desktop card while Radeon RX 6850M XT is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon HD 6490
Radeon HD 6490
AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT
Radeon RX 6850M XT

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


No user ratings yet.

Rate Radeon HD 6490 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.5 224 votes

Rate Radeon RX 6850M XT on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.