ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 vs R9 270X

Place in the ranking	393	905
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	5.80	no data
Power efficiency	4.89	4.44
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	Curacao	Broadway
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	8 October 2013 (11 years ago)	7 January 2010 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	no data

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	1280	800
Core clock speed	no data	500 MHz
Boost clock speed	1050 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	2,800 million	1,040 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	180 Watt	30 Watt
Texture fill rate	84.00	20.00
Floating-point processing power	2.688 TFLOPS	0.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	16
TMUs	80	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	no data	large
Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	2 x 6-pin	no data

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	4 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	no data	1000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	179.2 GB/s	64 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	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	No outputs
Eyefinity	+	-
HDMI	+	-
DisplayPort support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration	+	-
CrossFire	+	-
FreeSync	+	-
HD3D	+	-
LiquidVR	+	-
TressFX	+	-
TrueAudio	+	-
UVD	+	-
DDMA audio	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	5.0
OpenGL	4.6	4.4
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	+	N/A

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	120−130 +532%	19 −532%
Full HD	150−160 +525%	24 −525%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

1.33

no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

20−22
+400%

4−5

−400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 +314%	7−8 −314%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 +567%	3−4 −567%
Battlefield 5	40−45 +3900%	1−2 −3900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 +400%	5−6 −400%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 +400%	4−5 −400%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +867%	3−4 −867%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 +600%	5−6 −600%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 +938%	8−9 −938%
Hitman 3	24−27 +243%	7−8 −243%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 +267%	18−20 −267%
Metro Exodus	40−45 +600%	6−7 −600%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 +775%	4−5 −775%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +310%	10−11 −310%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +103%	35−40 −103%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 +314%	7−8 −314%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 +567%	3−4 −567%
Battlefield 5	40−45 +3900%	1−2 −3900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 +400%	5−6 −400%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 +400%	4−5 −400%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +867%	3−4 −867%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 +600%	5−6 −600%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 +938%	8−9 −938%
Hitman 3	24−27 +243%	7−8 −243%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 +267%	18−20 −267%
Metro Exodus	40−45 +600%	6−7 −600%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 +775%	4−5 −775%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +310%	10−11 −310%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 +158%	12−14 −158%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +103%	35−40 −103%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 +314%	7−8 −314%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 +567%	3−4 −567%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 +400%	5−6 −400%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 +400%	4−5 −400%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +867%	3−4 −867%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 +938%	8−9 −938%
Hitman 3	24−27 +243%	7−8 −243%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 +267%	18−20 −267%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +310%	10−11 −310%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 +158%	12−14 −158%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +103%	35−40 −103%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40
+775%

4−5

−775%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 +733%	3−4 −733%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 +533%	3−4 −533%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 +500%	2−3 −500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	9−10 +800%	1−2 −800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +1200%	1−2 −1200%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +500%	1−2 −500%
Far Cry 5	14−16 +650%	2−3 −650%
Forza Horizon 4	60−65 +589%	9−10 −589%
Hitman 3	16−18 +129%	7−8 −129%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 +333%	6−7 −333%
Metro Exodus	21−24 +600%	3−4 −600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 +567%	3−4 −567%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +1200%	1−2 −1200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +618%	10−12 −618%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24
+320%

5−6

−320%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12−14 +1100%	1−2 −1100%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 +800%	1−2 −800%
Hitman 3	9−10 +800%	1−2 −800%
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65 +567%	9−10 −567%
Metro Exodus	10−12 +1000%	1−2 −1000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +1000%	1−2 −1000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +500%	1−2 −500%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3	0−1
Far Cry 5	7−8 +600%	1−2 −600%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 +750%	2−3 −750%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−12 +1000%	1−2 −1000%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

12−14
+300%

3−4

−300%

This is how R9 270X and ATI Mobility HD 5850 compete in popular games:

R9 270X is 532% faster in 900p
R9 270X is 525% faster in 1080p

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

in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the R9 270X is 3900% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, R9 270X surpassed ATI Mobility HD 5850 in all 53 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	12.62	1.91
Recency	8 October 2013	7 January 2010
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	1 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	180 Watt	30 Watt

R9 270X has a 560.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

ATI Mobility HD 5850, on the other hand, has 500% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R9 270X is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 5850 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon R9 270X is a desktop card while Mobility Radeon HD 5850 is a notebook one.

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