ATI HD 4850 vs AMD HD 7870M

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Combined performance score

HD 7870M
3.89
+46.8%

HD 7870M outperforms HD 4850 by 47% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking658772
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money0.600.16
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)Terascale 1 (2008−2010)
GPU code nameHeathrow XTRV770
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date24 April 2012 (11 years old)25 June 2008 (15 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$199
Current price$338 $138 (0.7x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 7870M has 275% better value for money than ATI HD 4850.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores640800
Core clock speed800 MHz625 MHz
Number of transistors1,500 million956 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)45 Watt110 Watt
Texture fill rate32.0025.00
Floating-point performance1,024 gflops1,000.0 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 4850 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop sizelargeno data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Lengthno data246 mm
Widthno data1-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 6-pin

Memory

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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount2 GB512 MB
Memory bus width128 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed4000 MHz993 MHz
Memory bandwidth64 GB/s63.55 GB/s
Shared memory-no data

Video outputs and ports

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 ConnectorsNo outputs2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API support

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

DirectX12 (11_1)10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model5.14.1
OpenGL4.63.3
OpenCL1.21.1
Vulkan1.2.131N/A

Synthetic benchmark performance

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


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 7870M 3.89
+46.8%
ATI HD 4850 2.65

HD 7870M outperforms HD 4850 by 47% in our combined benchmark results.


Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

HD 7870M 1507
+46.9%
ATI HD 4850 1026

HD 7870M outperforms HD 4850 by 47% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 7870M 13065
+45.6%
ATI HD 4850 8972

HD 7870M outperforms HD 4850 by 46% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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:

900p40−45
+42.9%
28
−42.9%
Full HD55−60
+37.5%
40
−37.5%
1200p27−30
+42.1%
19
−42.1%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 10−11
+100%
5−6
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+100%
6−7
−100%
Hitman 3 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Horizon Zero Dawn 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Red Dead Redemption 2 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 10−11
+100%
5−6
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+100%
6−7
−100%
Hitman 3 8−9
+60%
5−6
−60%
Horizon Zero Dawn 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Metro Exodus 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%
Red Dead Redemption 2 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 10−11
+100%
5−6
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Far Cry New Dawn 7−8
+133%
3−4
−133%
Forza Horizon 4 12−14
+100%
6−7
−100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9−10
+50%
6−7
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+20%
5−6
−20%
Hitman 3 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Metro Exodus 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Hitman 3 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1−2 0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2 0−1

This is how HD 7870M and ATI HD 4850 compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • HD 7870M is 42.9% faster than ATI HD 4850

1080p resolution:

  • HD 7870M is 37.5% faster than ATI HD 4850

1200p resolution:

  • HD 7870M is 42.1% faster than ATI HD 4850

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

  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 7870M is 300% faster than the ATI HD 4850.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 7870M is ahead in 49 tests (92%)
  • there's a draw in 4 tests (8%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 3.89 2.65
Recency 24 April 2012 25 June 2008
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 28 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt 110 Watt

The Radeon HD 7870M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 4850 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7870M is a notebook card while Radeon HD 4850 is a desktop one.


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

User ratings

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AMD Radeon HD 7870M
Radeon HD 7870M
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Radeon HD 4850

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2.6 13 votes

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Questions and comments

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