GeForce GTX 950M Mac Edition vs Radeon HD 6870 X2
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) | Maxwell (2014−2017) |
| GPU code name | Barts | GM107 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 8 July 2011 (13 years ago) | 13 March 2015 (9 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $520 | 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 | 1120 | 640 |
| Core clock speed | 900 MHz | 993 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1124 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,700 million | 1,870 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 75 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 50.40 | 44.96 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.016 TFLOPS | 1.439 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 16 |
| TMUs | 56 | 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) |
| Length | 304 mm | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 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 | DDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1050 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 134.4 GB/s | 28.8 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, 2x mini-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 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 8 July 2011 | 13 March 2015 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 75 Watt |
GTX 950M Mac Edition has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 300% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6870 X2 and GeForce GTX 950M Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 6870 X2 is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 950M Mac Edition is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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