The AMD Radeon HD 8850M is a 28nm DirectX 11 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for medium-sized laptops, the card is positioned in the performance category as of 2013. Compared to the similar Radeon HD 7850M, the 8850M offers slightly different clock speeds.
The design of the Radeon 8800M series has its roots to the Cape Verde chip as found, for example, on the desktop Radeon HD 7770 with 640 1D shader cores and 40 texture units. However the core clock of the 8850M is only 575-725 MHz (or up to 625-775 MHz with Boost) versus the 1000 MHz of the desktop HD 7770. As a result, general performance of the HD 8850M should be similar to the desktop HD 7750.
Equipped with GDDR5 memory, the HD 8850M competes with the Nvidia GTX 660M. The DDR3 version of the HD 8850M is expected to be a bit slower, although it could offer higher clock rates. Many games of 2013 can be played fluently in medium or high detail and resolution settings.
The 640 shader cores can be used with OpenCL 1.2 for general-purpose calculations.
Features of the 8850M include video decoding via UVD3 for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly from the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are now compatible as well.
The 8800M series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the 8850M can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.
Other features of the 8800M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP limit. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.
The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.
Power consumption of the 8850M should be below that of the 8870M, corresponding to the core clock. Therefore, the 8850M is suited for medium-sized laptops and DTRs.
Radeon HD 8800M Series
| ||||||||||
| Architecture | GCN | |||||||||
| Pipelines | 640 - unified | |||||||||
| Core Speed | 575 - 725 (Boost) MHz | |||||||||
| Memory Speed | 4500 MHz | |||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | |||||||||
| Memory Type | GDDR5, DDR3 | |||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 2048 MB | |||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | |||||||||
| API | DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1, OpenGL 4.1 | |||||||||
| Transistor Count | 1.5 Billion | |||||||||
| technology | 28 nm | |||||||||
| Features | OpenCL 1.2 | |||||||||
| Notebook Size | large | |||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 18.12.2012 | |||||||||
- Average benchmark valuesThe following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Elder Scrolls Online | 44.4 | 33.4 | 27.9 | 17.2 | ||
| Titanfall | 60 | 49.9 | 38.7 | 24.9 | ||
| Thief | 27.1 | 22.5 | 19.7 | 11.5 | ||
| X-Plane 10.25 | 56.4 | 27.2 | 13.5 | 11.7 | ||
| Call of Duty: Ghosts | 35.1 | 33.2 | 16.9 | |||
| Battlefield 4 | 40.7 | 30.6 | ||||
| Total War: Rome II | 62.6 | 51 | 16.8 | |||
| Saints Row IV | 33.9 | 26.8 | 21.6 | 17.8 | ||
| The Bureau: XCOM Declassified | 39.8 | 27.8 | 20.8 | |||
| Splinter Cell: Blacklist | 37.1 | 24.4 | ||||
| Dota 2 | 112 | 68 | 40 | |||
| Company of Heroes 2 | 31.8 | 28.8 | 17.9 | |||
| GRID 2 | 52.9 | 45.9 | 14.7 | |||
| Metro: Last Light | 32 | 27 | 21 | 11.9 | ||
| BioShock Infinite | 88 | 56 | 46 | 17 | ||
| StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm | 89.2 | 64.5 | 21.3 | |||
| SimCity | 64 | 35.7 | 26.9 | 13.5 | ||
| Tomb Raider | 67.2 | 47.9 | 21.8 | |||
| Crysis 3 | 44.5 | 28.8 | ||||
| Dead Space 3 | 84.8 | 66.9 | 42 | |||
| Hitman: Absolution | 21.4 | 18.5 | ||||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 | 70.6 | 59.5 | 46.9 | 27.8 | ||
| Medal of Honor: Warfighter | 42.2 | 17.5 | ||||
| Dishonored | 59.3 | 53.2 | 51 | 42.6 | ||
| Counter-Strike: GO | 101.9 | 78.1 | ||||
| Sleeping Dogs | 55 | 36 | ||||
| Dirt Showdown | 70 | 46.7 | 31.9 | |||
| Diablo III | 111.6 | 77 | 67 | 44 | ||
| Anno 2070 | 136 | 67 | 47 | 21 | ||
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 48.8 | 37.5 | 23.6 | |||
| Battlefield 3 | 40.2 | 36.9 | 16.4 | |||
| Deus Ex Human Revolution | 75.1 | 32.6 | ||||
| Metro 2033 | 123.5 | 87 | ||||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 2 8 7 2 | 7 15 8 | 10 14 5 | 18 5 1 | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
Samsung ATIV 670Z5E-X01DE: Intel Core i5-3230M, 15.60", 2.3 kg
External Review » Samsung ATIV 670Z5E-X01DE
Dell Latitude 13 3540: Intel Core i5-4200U, 15.60", 2.3 kg
External Review » Dell Latitude 3540
Dell Inspiron 15-3537: Intel Core i7-4500U, 15.60", 2.3 kg
External Review » Dell Inspiron 15-3537
Samsung 770Z5E-S01P: Intel Core i5-3230M, 15.60", 2.4 kg
External Review » Samsung 770Z5E-S01P
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