Radeon RX 590 vs HD 7850M

Place in the ranking	722	229
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	25.03
Power efficiency	6.11	9.56
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	Heathrow	Polaris 30
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	24 April 2012 (12 years ago)	15 November 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$279

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 cores	640	2304
Core clock speed	675 MHz	1469 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1545 MHz
Number of transistors	1,500 million	5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	40 Watt	175 Watt
Texture fill rate	27.00	222.5
Floating-point processing power	0.864 TFLOPS	7.119 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	32
TMUs	40	144

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	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	no data	241 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	64 GB/s	256.0 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	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

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

FreeSync

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	5.1	6.4
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2.131

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 7850M 3.56

RX 590 24.38
+585%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

HD 7850M 1372

RX 590 9393
+585%

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 7850M 2467

RX 590 23363
+847%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 7850M 12254

RX 590 48454
+295%

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:

Full HD	14−16 −621%	101 +621%
1440p	8−9 −625%	58 +625%
4K	5−6 −600%	35 +600%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	2.76
1440p	no data	4.81
4K	no data	7.97

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

−567%

40−45
+567%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −550%	65 +550%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −4200%	86 +4200%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −1843%	136 +1843%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −763%	69 +763%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −567%	40−45 +567%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1186%	90 +1186%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −800%	90 +800%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −1270%	274 +1270%
Hitman 3	9−10 −444%	45−50 +444%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1104%	301 +1104%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −1967%	124 +1967%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −911%	91 +911%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −900%	140 +900%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −563%	272 +563%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1030%	113 +1030%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −3550%	73 +3550%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −1643%	122 +1643%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −700%	64 +700%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −567%	40−45 +567%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −957%	74 +957%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −610%	71 +610%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −1195%	259 +1195%
Hitman 3	9−10 −444%	45−50 +444%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1048%	287 +1048%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −1517%	97 +1517%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −722%	74 +722%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −714%	114 +714%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −253%	50−55 +253%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −537%	261 +537%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −290%	39 +290%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −3000%	62 +3000%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −475%	46 +475%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −567%	40−45 +567%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −686%	55 +686%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −355%	91 +355%
Hitman 3	9−10 −444%	45−50 +444%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −284%	96 +284%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −614%	100 +614%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −240%	51 +240%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +17.1%	35 −17.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

−611%

64
+611%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 −667%	45−50 +667%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −640%	35−40 +640%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −733%	24−27 +733%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −1167%	38 +1167%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −650%	14−16 +650%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −600%	27−30 +600%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −6850%	130−140 +6850%
Hitman 3	8−9 −263%	27−30 +263%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 −700%	72 +700%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 −900%	30−33 +900%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −823%	203 +823%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−514%

43
+514%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −1850%	39 +1850%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −1200%	26 +1200%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −850%	19 +850%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −4100%	42 +4100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −1900%	20 +1900%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	6−7
Far Cry 5	2−3 −750%	17 +750%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −2200%	46 +2200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −1200%	13 +1200%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−650%

30
+650%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	55 +0%	55 +0%
Metro Exodus	58 +0%	58 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70 +0%	70 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	57 +0%	57 +0%
Metro Exodus	36 +0%	36 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	32 +0%	32 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

+0%

This is how HD 7850M and RX 590 compete in popular games:

RX 590 is 621% faster in 1080p
RX 590 is 625% faster in 1440p
RX 590 is 600% faster in 4K

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

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 7850M is 17% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 590 is 6850% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

HD 7850M is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RX 590 is ahead in 62 tests (87%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.56	24.38
Recency	24 April 2012	15 November 2018
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	40 Watt	175 Watt

HD 7850M has 337.5% lower power consumption.

RX 590, on the other hand, has a 584.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 133.3% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 590 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7850M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7850M is a notebook card while Radeon RX 590 is a desktop one.

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