ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 vs HD 6950M

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6950M and Mobility Radeon HD 5870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6950M
2011
2 GB GDDR5, 50 Watt
3.55
+19.9%

HD 6950M outperforms ATI Mobility HD 5870 by a significant 20% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking720779
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureTerascale 2 (2009−2015)Terascale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameBlackcomb ProBroadway-XT
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date6 January 2011 (13 years ago)7 January 2010 (14 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores960800
Core clock speed580 MHz700 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million1,040 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)50 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate27.8428.00
Floating-point performance1.114 gflops1.12 gflops

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 sizelargelarge
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)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 typeGDDR5DDR3, GDDR3, GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed900 MHz1000 MHz
Memory bandwidth115.2 GB/s64 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 outputsNo outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model5.05.0
OpenGL4.44.4
OpenCL1.21.2
VulkanN/AN/A

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 6950M 3.55
+19.9%
ATI Mobility HD 5870 2.96

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 6950M 10122
+26.5%
ATI Mobility HD 5870 7999

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 HD40−45
+8.1%
37
−8.1%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−11
+11.1%
9−10
−11.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 20−22
+25%
16−18
−25%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+13.6%
21−24
−13.6%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+5.1%
35−40
−5.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−11
+11.1%
9−10
−11.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Battlefield 5 7−8
+40%
5−6
−40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 20−22
+25%
16−18
−25%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+13.6%
21−24
−13.6%
Metro Exodus 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+7.1%
14−16
−7.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+5.1%
35−40
−5.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−11
+11.1%
9−10
−11.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
+14.3%
7−8
−14.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Forza Horizon 4 20−22
+25%
16−18
−25%
Hitman 3 9−10
+12.5%
8−9
−12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+13.6%
21−24
−13.6%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+16.7%
12−14
−16.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
+7.1%
14−16
−7.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 40−45
+5.1%
35−40
−5.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
+20%
5−6
−20%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
+25%
4−5
−25%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2 0−1
Hitman 3 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
+28.6%
7−8
−28.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24
+22.2%
18−20
−22.2%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
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
Far Cry 5 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 1−2 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 HD 6950M and ATI Mobility HD 5870 compete in popular games:

  • HD 6950M is 8% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 6950M is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 6950M is ahead in 49 tests (80%)
  • there's a draw in 12 tests (20%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.55 2.96
Recency 6 January 2011 7 January 2010
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB

HD 6950M has a 19.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 months, and a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

The Radeon HD 6950M is our recommended choice as it beats the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 in performance tests.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 6950M
Radeon HD 6950M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Mobility Radeon HD 5870

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.


5 1 vote

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3.4 52 votes

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Questions & comments

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