Radeon HD 8650M vs HD 7870

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 7870 with Radeon HD 8650M, including specs and performance data.

HD 7870
2012
2 GB GDDR5, 175 Watt
12.02
+489%

HD 7870 outperforms HD 8650M by a whopping 489% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking403879
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation3.00no data
Power efficiency4.79no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)GCN (2012−2015)
GPU code namePitcairnno data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date5 March 2012 (12 years ago)7 January 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$349 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 cores1280384
Core clock speed1000 MHz650 MHz
Number of transistors2,800 million900 Million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)175 Wattno data
Texture fill rate80.00no data
Floating-point processing power2.56 TFLOPSno data
ROPs32no data
TMUs80no data

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 sizeno datamedium sized
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16no data
Length241 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinno 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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed1200 MHz4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth153.6 GB/sno 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortno data
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)11.1
Shader Model5.1no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL1.2no data
Vulkan1.2.131-

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:

900p84
+500%
14−16
−500%
Full HD68
+580%
10−12
−580%

Cost per frame, $

1080p5.13no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+375%
4−5
−375%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+300%
7−8
−300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Battlefield 5 35−40
+3700%
1−2
−3700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+380%
5−6
−380%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+375%
4−5
−375%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+833%
3−4
−833%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+1043%
7−8
−1043%
Hitman 3 21−24
+283%
6−7
−283%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+276%
16−18
−276%
Metro Exodus 40−45
+567%
6−7
−567%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+725%
4−5
−725%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+97.1%
35−40
−97.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+300%
7−8
−300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Battlefield 5 35−40
+3700%
1−2
−3700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+380%
5−6
−380%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+375%
4−5
−375%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+833%
3−4
−833%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+1043%
7−8
−1043%
Hitman 3 21−24
+283%
6−7
−283%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+276%
16−18
−276%
Metro Exodus 40−45
+567%
6−7
−567%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+725%
4−5
−725%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
+150%
12−14
−150%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+97.1%
35−40
−97.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+300%
7−8
−300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+380%
5−6
−380%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+375%
4−5
−375%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+833%
3−4
−833%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+1043%
7−8
−1043%
Hitman 3 21−24
+283%
6−7
−283%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+276%
16−18
−276%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+333%
9−10
−333%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20
+66.7%
12−14
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+97.1%
35−40
−97.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+725%
4−5
−725%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 21−24
+667%
3−4
−667%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
+500%
3−4
−500%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+1100%
1−2
−1100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+1200%
1−2
−1200%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+500%
1−2
−500%
Far Cry 5 14−16
+600%
2−3
−600%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
+544%
9−10
−544%
Hitman 3 14−16
+114%
7−8
−114%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+317%
6−7
−317%
Metro Exodus 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+1100%
1−2
−1100%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+650%
10−11
−650%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
+300%
5−6
−300%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Far Cry New Dawn 9−10
+800%
1−2
−800%
Hitman 3 8−9
+700%
1−2
−700%
Horizon Zero Dawn 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%
Metro Exodus 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
+900%
1−2
−900%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
+250%
2−3
−250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3 0−1
Far Cry 5 6−7
+500%
1−2
−500%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+700%
2−3
−700%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+900%
1−2
−900%
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+267%
3−4
−267%

This is how HD 7870 and HD 8650M compete in popular games:

  • HD 7870 is 500% faster in 900p
  • HD 7870 is 580% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 7870 is 3700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, HD 7870 surpassed HD 8650M in all 53 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 12.02 2.04
Recency 5 March 2012 7 January 2013

HD 7870 has a 489.2% higher aggregate performance score.

HD 8650M, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 10 months.

The Radeon HD 7870 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 8650M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7870 is a desktop card while Radeon HD 8650M 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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AMD Radeon HD 7870
Radeon HD 7870
AMD Radeon HD 8650M
Radeon HD 8650M

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.


3.7 640 votes

Rate Radeon HD 7870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3.7 11 votes

Rate Radeon HD 8650M on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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