Radeon R9 280X2 vs HD 6850

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking625not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation1.05no data
Power efficiency2.75no data
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameBartsTahiti
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date21 October 2010 (14 years ago)no data
Launch price (MSRP)$179 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores9602048
Core clock speedno data950 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1000 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)127 Watt375 Watt
Texture fill rate37.20128.0
Floating-point processing power1.488 TFLOPS4.096 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs48128

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).

Bus supportAGPno data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length198 mm315 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin3x 8-pin

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB3 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth128.0 GB/s288.0 GB/s

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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort6x mini-DisplayPort 1.2
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 (11_1)
Shader Model5.06.5 (5.1)
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.22.1 (1.2)
Vulkan-1.2.170

Pros & cons summary


Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 3 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 127 Watt 375 Watt

HD 6850 has 195.3% lower power consumption.

R9 280X2, on the other hand, has a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6850 and Radeon R9 280X2. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 6850
Radeon HD 6850
AMD Radeon R9 280X2
Radeon R9 280X2

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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