Radeon HD 6850M vs FirePro W4170M

Place in the ranking	805	887
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	2.80
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	Opal	Granville
Market segment	Mobile workstation	Laptop
Release date	23 April 2015 (9 years ago)	4 January 2011 (13 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	384	800
Core clock speed	825 MHz	675 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	950 million	1,040 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	21.60	27.00
Floating-point processing power	0.6912 TFLOPS	1.08 TFLOPS
ROPs	8	16
TMUs	24	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	medium sized	large
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	None	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	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	64 GB/s	25.6 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

Portable Device Dependent

No outputs

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	6.5 (5.1)	5.0
OpenGL	4.6	4.4
OpenCL	2.1 (1.2)	1.2
Vulkan	1.2.170	N/A

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.

W4170M 2.70
+34.3%

HD 6850M 2.01

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.

W4170M 2315
+57.5%

HD 6850M 1470

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	24−27 +20%	20 −20%
Full HD	21 −19%	25 +19%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6
+25%

4−5

−25%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	0−1
Battlefield 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +62.5%	8−9 −62.5%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +23.5%	16−18 −23.5%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +20%	10−11 −20%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +8.6%	35−40 −8.6%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	0−1
Battlefield 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +62.5%	8−9 −62.5%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +23.5%	16−18 −23.5%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +20%	10−11 −20%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +16.7%	12−14 −16.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +8.6%	35−40 −8.6%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +62.5%	8−9 −62.5%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +23.5%	16−18 −23.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +20%	10−11 −20%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +16.7%	12−14 −16.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +8.6%	35−40 −8.6%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7
+50%

4−5

−50%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Hitman 3	8−9 +14.3%	7−8 −14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	16−18 +45.5%	10−12 −45.5%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7
+20%

5−6

−20%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2	0−1
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +100%	1−2 −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
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5
+33.3%

3−4

−33.3%

This is how W4170M and HD 6850M compete in popular games:

W4170M is 20% faster in 900p
HD 6850M is 19% 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 W4170M is 300% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

W4170M is ahead in 45 tests (85%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (15%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.70	2.01
Recency	23 April 2015	4 January 2011
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	1 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm

W4170M has a 34.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

The FirePro W4170M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6850M in performance tests.

Be aware that FirePro W4170M is a mobile workstation card while Radeon HD 6850M is a mobile workstation one.

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