Radeon RX 6850M XT vs HD 6850M

Place in the ranking	886	77
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	2.78	18.87
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Granville	Navi 22
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	4 January 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 cores	800	2560
Core clock speed	675 MHz	2321 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2581 MHz
Number of transistors	1,040 million	17,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	165 Watt
Texture fill rate	27.00	413.0
Floating-point processing power	1.08 TFLOPS	13.21 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	64
TMUs	40	160
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	40

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 size	large	large
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	no data	None

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	GDDR3	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	12 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	384.0 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

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.3

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

HD 6850M 2.03

RX 6850M XT 45.45
+2139%

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.

HD 6850M 1470

RX 6850M XT 42016
+2759%

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	20 −1900%	400−450 +1900%
Full HD	25 −480%	145 +480%
1440p	3−4 −2800%	87 +2800%
4K	2−3 −3250%	67 +3250%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

−3900%

160
+3900%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1243%	90−95 +1243%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −14100%	140−150 +14100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −1680%	85−90 +1680%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −3300%	136 +3300%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3000%	90−95 +3000%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −2080%	100−110 +2080%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2438%	200−210 +2438%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1257%	95−100 +1257%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −959%	180−190 +959%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −2400%	100−105 +2400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −1580%	160−170 +1580%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −286%	130−140 +286%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1243%	90−95 +1243%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −14100%	140−150 +14100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −1680%	85−90 +1680%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2550%	106 +2550%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3000%	90−95 +3000%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −2080%	100−110 +2080%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2438%	200−210 +2438%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1257%	95−100 +1257%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −959%	180−190 +959%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −2400%	100−105 +2400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2490%	259 +2490%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −667%	90−95 +667%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −286%	130−140 +286%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1243%	90−95 +1243%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −1680%	85−90 +1680%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2075%	87 +2075%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3000%	90−95 +3000%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2438%	200−210 +2438%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1257%	95−100 +1257%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −959%	180−190 +959%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2170%	227 +2170%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −917%	122 +917%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −137%	83 +137%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−2400%

100−105
+2400%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −2833%	85−90 +2833%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −2167%	65−70 +2167%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −2350%	45−50 +2350%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −5200%	50−55 +5200%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −5400%	55 +5400%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −2500%	50−55 +2500%
Hitman 3	7−8 −743%	55−60 +743%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 −1550%	95−100 +1550%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −6700%	65−70 +6700%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12 −1773%	200−210 +1773%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−1440%

75−80
+1440%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

1−2

−3800%

35−40
+3800%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −1450%	30−35 +1450%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −4600%	47 +4600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	27−30
Far Cry 5	1−2 −2600%	27−30 +2600%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	24−27

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−1267%

40−45
+1267%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	159 +0%	159 +0%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	130 +0%	130 +0%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

112

+0%

112

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	85 +0%	85 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Metro Exodus	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	166 +0%	166 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Hitman 3	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	190−200 +0%	190−200 +0%
Metro Exodus	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	72 +0%	72 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	26 +0%	26 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	60−65 +0%	60−65 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	92 +0%	92 +0%

This is how HD 6850M and RX 6850M XT compete in popular games:

RX 6850M XT is 1900% faster in 900p
RX 6850M XT is 480% faster in 1080p
RX 6850M XT is 2800% faster in 1440p
RX 6850M XT is 3250% faster in 4K

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

in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX 6850M XT is 14100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RX 6850M XT is ahead in 53 tests (76%)
there's a draw in 17 tests (24%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.03	45.45
Recency	4 January 2011	4 January 2022
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	12 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	165 Watt

HD 6850M has 230% lower power consumption.

RX 6850M XT, on the other hand, has a 2138.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 471.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6850M XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6850M in performance tests.

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