Radeon HD 6950M vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)

Place in the ranking	713	721
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	4.90
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	Surface Book	Blackcomb
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 October 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	960
Core clock speed	954 MHz	580 MHz
Boost clock speed	993 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	no data	1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	27.84
Floating-point processing power	no data	1.114 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	32
TMUs	no data	48

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
Interface	no data	MXM-B (3.0)

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	1 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	5012 MHz	900 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	115.2 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

no data

No outputs

Supported technologies

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

Optimus

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	no data	5.0
OpenGL	no data	4.4
OpenCL	no data	1.2
Vulkan	-	N/A
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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 3.69
+3.4%

HD 6950M 3.57

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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 2577
+5.1%

HD 6950M 2452

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

28
+3.7%

27−30

−3.7%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +14.3%	7−8 −14.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +5%	20−22 −5%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +14.3%	7−8 −14.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +5%	20−22 −5%
Metro Exodus	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +14.3%	7−8 −14.3%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +11.1%	9−10 −11.1%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +5%	20−22 −5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Battlefield 5	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Far Cry 5	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2	0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Battlefield 5	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

+0%

6−7

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Hitman 3	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Metro Exodus	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Hitman 3	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Hitman 3	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

+0%

9−10

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

+0%

7−8

+0%

4K
High Preset

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

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) and HD 6950M compete in popular games:

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 4% faster in 1080p

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) is ahead in 10 tests (16%)
there's a draw in 53 tests (84%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.69	3.57
Recency	1 October 2015	4 January 2011
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) has a 3.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) and Radeon HD 6950M.

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