Radeon 740M vs HD 6850

Place in the ranking	623	503
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	1.05	no data
Power efficiency	2.79	38.63
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 3.0 (2022−2024)
GPU code name	Barts	Phoenix
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	21 October 2010 (14 years ago)	4 January 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$179	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	960	256
Core clock speed	no data	800 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2500 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	25,390 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	127 Watt	15 Watt
Texture fill rate	37.20	40.00
Floating-point processing power	1.488 TFLOPS	2.56 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	8
TMUs	48	16
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	4

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).

Bus support	AGP	no data
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x8
Length	198 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	None

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	System Shared
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	System Shared
Memory bus width	256 Bit	System Shared
Memory clock speed	no data	System Shared
Memory bandwidth	128.0 GB/s	no data
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, 2x mini-DisplayPort	Portable Device Dependent
Eyefinity	+	-
HDMI	+	-

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 11	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.7
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	-	1.3

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 5.09

Radeon 740M 8.31
+63.3%

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 1965

Radeon 740M 3204
+63.1%

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

12−14

−75%

21
+75%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

14.92

no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

14−16

+0%

14−16

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Battlefield 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Far Cry 5	20−22 +0%	20−22 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Hitman 3	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Metro Exodus	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Battlefield 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Far Cry 5	20−22 +0%	20−22 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Hitman 3	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Metro Exodus	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Far Cry 5	20−22 +0%	20−22 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Hitman 3	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

24−27

+0%

24−27

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Hitman 3	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Metro Exodus	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

+0%

14−16

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Hitman 3	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Metro Exodus	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

+0%

9−10

+0%

This is how HD 6850 and Radeon 740M compete in popular games:

Radeon 740M is 75% faster in 1080p

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.09	8.31
Recency	21 October 2010	4 January 2023
Chip lithography	40 nm	4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	127 Watt	15 Watt

Radeon 740M has a 63.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 900% more advanced lithography process, and 746.7% lower power consumption.

The Radeon 740M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6850 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6850 is a desktop card while Radeon 740M is a notebook one.

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