Radeon RX 7900M vs HD 6850M

Place in the ranking	884	38
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	2.79	22.54
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 3.0 (2022−2024)
GPU code name	Granville	Navi 31
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	4 January 2011 (13 years ago)	19 October 2023 (1 year 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	4608
Core clock speed	675 MHz	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2090 MHz
Number of transistors	1,040 million	57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	180 Watt
Texture fill rate	27.00	601.9
Floating-point processing power	1.08 TFLOPS	38.52 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	192
TMUs	40	288
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	72

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	16 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	576.0 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

Portable Device Dependent

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	6.7
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.2
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 2.01

RX 7900M 58.37
+2804%

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 7900M 59943
+3979%

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 −2650%	550−600 +2650%
Full HD	25 −552%	163 +552%
1440p	4−5 −3000%	124 +3000%
4K	3−4 −2933%	91 +2933%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5
−2650%

110−120

+2650%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1600%	110−120 +1600%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −18100%	180−190 +18100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −2060%	100−110 +2060%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2650%	110−120 +2650%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3533%	100−110 +3533%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −2660%	130−140 +2660%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2700%	220−230 +2700%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −1182%	210−220 +1182%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −2750%	110−120 +2750%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2190%	220−230 +2190%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −320%	140−150 +320%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1600%	110−120 +1600%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −18100%	180−190 +18100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −2060%	100−110 +2060%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2650%	110−120 +2650%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3533%	100−110 +3533%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −2660%	130−140 +2660%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2700%	220−230 +2700%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −1182%	210−220 +1182%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −2750%	110−120 +2750%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2190%	220−230 +2190%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −892%	110−120 +892%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −320%	140−150 +320%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1600%	110−120 +1600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −2060%	100−110 +2060%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −2650%	110−120 +2650%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −3533%	100−110 +3533%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −2700%	220−230 +2700%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1586%	110−120 +1586%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −1182%	210−220 +1182%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −3340%	344 +3340%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −1300%	168 +1300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −320%	140−150 +320%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−2750%

110−120
+2750%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −4000%	120−130 +4000%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −2867%	85−90 +2867%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −3150%	65−70 +3150%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −6700%	65−70 +6700%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −2600%	27−30 +2600%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −3250%	65−70 +3250%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1057%	80−85 +1057%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 −2167%	130−140 +2167%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −9500%	95−100 +9500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12 −1982%	220−230 +1982%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−1860%

95−100
+1860%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

1−2

−5300%

50−55
+5300%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −2100%	40−45 +2100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −4100%	40−45 +4100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	40−45
Far Cry 5	1−2 −3700%	35−40 +3700%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	30−35

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−1767%

55−60
+1767%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	100−105 +0%	100−105 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	100−105 +0%	100−105 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

100−105

+0%

100−105

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Metro Exodus	100−105 +0%	100−105 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	249 +0%	249 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	60−65 +0%	60−65 +0%
Hitman 3	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	210−220 +0%	210−220 +0%
Metro Exodus	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	116 +0%	116 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Forza Horizon 4	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	131 +0%	131 +0%

This is how HD 6850M and RX 7900M compete in popular games:

RX 7900M is 2650% faster in 900p
RX 7900M is 552% faster in 1080p
RX 7900M is 3000% faster in 1440p
RX 7900M is 2933% 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 7900M is 18100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RX 7900M is ahead in 48 tests (75%)
there's a draw in 16 tests (25%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.01	58.37
Recency	4 January 2011	19 October 2023
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	180 Watt

HD 6850M has 260% lower power consumption.

RX 7900M, on the other hand, has a 2804% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 7900M 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.