Radeon HD 7850 vs GeForce GTX 970M SLI

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 970M SLI with Radeon HD 7850, including specs and performance data.

GTX 970M SLI
2014
2x 6 GB GDDR5, 162 Watt
24.40
+143%

GTX 970M SLI outperforms HD 7850 by a whopping 143% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking228451
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data2.94
Power efficiency10.335.30
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameno dataPitcairn
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Designno datareference
Release date7 October 2014 (10 years ago)5 March 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$249

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 cores25601024
Core clock speed924 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1038 MHz1000 MHz
Number of transistors2x 5200 Million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)162 Watt130 Watt
Texture fill rateno data55.04
Floating-point processing powerno data1.761 TFLOPS
ROPsno data32
TMUsno data64

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 sizelargeno data
Bus supportno dataPCIe 2.1 x16
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data210 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 6-pin
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2x 6 GB2 GB
Memory bus width2x 192 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed5000 MHz1200 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data153.6 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 Connectorsno data1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity-+
HDMI-+

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire-+
FreeSync-+
Optimus+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12_112
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-+
CUDA+-

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.

GTX 970M SLI 24.40
+143%
HD 7850 10.05

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.

GTX 970M SLI 14760
+183%
HD 7850 5210

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 HD86
+146%
35−40
−146%
4K40
+150%
16−18
−150%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data7.11
4Kno data15.56

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+150%
16−18
−150%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+152%
21−24
−152%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+156%
16−18
−156%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+167%
30−33
−167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+178%
18−20
−178%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+150%
16−18
−150%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+167%
21−24
−167%
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65
+167%
24−27
−167%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+160%
55−60
−160%
Hitman 3 45−50
+172%
18−20
−172%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+151%
45−50
−151%
Metro Exodus 80−85
+180%
30−33
−180%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+167%
24−27
−167%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+173%
30−33
−173%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+155%
40−45
−155%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+152%
21−24
−152%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+156%
16−18
−156%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+167%
30−33
−167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+178%
18−20
−178%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+150%
16−18
−150%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+167%
21−24
−167%
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65
+167%
24−27
−167%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+160%
55−60
−160%
Hitman 3 45−50
+172%
18−20
−172%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+151%
45−50
−151%
Metro Exodus 80−85
+180%
30−33
−180%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+167%
24−27
−167%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+173%
30−33
−173%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 136
+147%
55−60
−147%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+155%
40−45
−155%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+152%
21−24
−152%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+156%
16−18
−156%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+178%
18−20
−178%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+150%
16−18
−150%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+167%
21−24
−167%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+160%
55−60
−160%
Hitman 3 45−50
+172%
18−20
−172%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+151%
45−50
−151%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+173%
30−33
−173%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 48
+167%
18−20
−167%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+155%
40−45
−155%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+167%
24−27
−167%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50
+156%
18−20
−156%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+164%
14−16
−164%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27
+150%
10−11
−150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+167%
9−10
−167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+180%
10−11
−180%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+150%
6−7
−150%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+180%
10−11
−180%
Forza Horizon 4 130−140
+153%
55−60
−153%
Hitman 3 27−30
+190%
10−11
−190%
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55
+178%
18−20
−178%
Metro Exodus 45−50
+156%
18−20
−156%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 50−55
+152%
21−24
−152%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
+150%
12−14
−150%
Watch Dogs: Legion 130−140
+151%
55−60
−151%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+156%
16−18
−156%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27
+167%
9−10
−167%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
+171%
7−8
−171%
Hitman 3 18−20
+171%
7−8
−171%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+150%
50−55
−150%
Metro Exodus 27−30
+170%
10−11
−170%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
+180%
10−11
−180%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+150%
6−7
−150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+160%
5−6
−160%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+180%
5−6
−180%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+160%
5−6
−160%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+175%
12−14
−175%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 27−30
+190%
10−11
−190%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−12
+175%
4−5
−175%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
+163%
8−9
−163%

This is how GTX 970M SLI and HD 7850 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 970M SLI is 146% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 970M SLI is 150% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.40 10.05
Recency 7 October 2014 5 March 2012
Power consumption (TDP) 162 Watt 130 Watt

GTX 970M SLI has a 142.8% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 2 years.

HD 7850, on the other hand, has 24.6% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 970M SLI is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7850 in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 970M SLI is a notebook card while Radeon HD 7850 is a desktop one.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI
GeForce GTX 970M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 7850
Radeon HD 7850

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


2.3 45 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 970M SLI on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.1 821 vote

Rate Radeon HD 7850 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.