Radeon RX Vega 3 vs HD 8850M

Place in the ranking	831	779
Place by popularity	not in top-100	86
Power efficiency	no data	14.58
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	GCN 5.0 (2017−2020)
GPU code name	Venus	Picasso
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 April 2013 (11 years ago)	6 January 2019 (5 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	640	192
Core clock speed	575 MHz	300 MHz
Boost clock speed	625 MHz	1001 MHz
Number of transistors	1,500 million	4,940 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	15 Watt
Texture fill rate	25.00	12.01
Floating-point processing power	0.8 TFLOPS	0.3844 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	4
TMUs	40	12

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	IGP
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	DDR3	System Shared
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	System Shared
Memory bus width	128 Bit	System Shared
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	System Shared
Memory bandwidth	32 GB/s	no data
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	12 (11_1)	12 (12_1)
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 8850M 2.52

RX Vega 3 2.98
+18.3%

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 8850M 973

RX Vega 3 1149
+18.1%

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 8850M 8223
+51.1%

RX Vega 3 5441

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 8850M 2349
+36.3%

RX Vega 3 1724

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

HD 8850M 1845
+57.5%

RX Vega 3 1172

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

HD 8850M 11387
+33.4%

RX Vega 3 8536

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

27
+125%

−125%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6

−20%

6−7
+20%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 +14.3%	7 −14.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	6
Battlefield 5	3−4 −66.7%	5−6 +66.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 +0%	6 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −50%	6−7 +50%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −33.3%	16−18 +33.3%
Hitman 3	7−8 +40%	5 −40%
Horizon Zero Dawn	20−22 −10%	21−24 +10%
Metro Exodus	2−3 −250%	7 +250%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +0%	6 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−12 −9.1%	12−14 +9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −5.4%	35−40 +5.4%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 −12.5%	9−10 +12.5%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	1−2
Battlefield 5	3−4 −66.7%	5−6 +66.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −16.7%	7−8 +16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −50%	6−7 +50%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −33.3%	16−18 +33.3%
Hitman 3	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	20−22 −10%	21−24 +10%
Metro Exodus	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −16.7%	7−8 +16.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−12 +0%	11 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −30.8%	17 +30.8%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −5.4%	35−40 +5.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 −12.5%	9−10 +12.5%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	1−2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −16.7%	7−8 +16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −50%	6−7 +50%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −33.3%	16−18 +33.3%
Hitman 3	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	20−22 +122%	9 −122%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−12 +22.2%	9 −22.2%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +225%	4 −225%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −5.4%	35−40 +5.4%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

−16.7%

7−8
+16.7%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	14−16 −20%	18−20 +20%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

+0%

6−7

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	1−2

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Forza Horizon 4

0−1

This is how HD 8850M and RX Vega 3 compete in popular games:

HD 8850M is 125% faster in 1080p

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 8850M is 225% faster.
in Metro Exodus, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX Vega 3 is 250% faster.

All in all, in popular games: