GeForce GTX 960A vs Radeon HD 6850 X2

Place in the ranking	566	492
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.80	8.09
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	Maxwell (2014−2017)
GPU code name	Barts	GM107
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	19 September 2011 (13 years ago)	13 March 2015 (9 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	960	640
Core clock speed	800 MHz	1029 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1085 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	254 Watt	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	38.40	43.40
Floating-point processing power	1.536 TFLOPS	1.389 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	16
TMUs	48	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).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	MXM-B (3.0)
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	2x 8-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	2 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1050 MHz	1253 MHz
Memory bandwidth	134.4 GB/s	80.19 GB/s

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
HDMI	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.0	5.1
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	1.1.126
CUDA	-	5.0

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 6850 X2 6.57

GTX 960A 8.70
+32.4%

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 6850 X2 2534

GTX 960A 3355
+32.4%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	6.57	8.70
Recency	19 September 2011	13 March 2015
Chip lithography	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	254 Watt	75 Watt

GTX 960A has a 32.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 238.7% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 960A is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6850 X2 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6850 X2 is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 960A is a notebook one.

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