If you are planning to buy a laptop on a budget, then you can have a look at laptops with AMD Radeon HD 7850m dedicated graphics cards. This card is the cheapest you can get in the market right now if you want to do some light gaming. It can support games that were released before 2014.
Read this AMD Radeon HD 7850M review 2022 to understand whether this will be a good buy for you or not.
AMD Radeon HD 7850M Specifications
The primary specifications of the AMD Radeon HD 7850M graphics are:
| Codename | Heathrow Pro |
| Architecture | Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 |
| Platform | Laptops (Large Scale) |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 |
| Technology | 28nm |
| DirectX | DX 11 |
| Pipelines | 640 Unified |
| Core Speed (Base) | 675MHz |
| Memory Clock Speed | 4000MHz |
| Memory Bandwidth | 64 GB/s |
| Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit |
| Shader | Shader 5.1 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 4.5 |
| Power Consumption | 32 Watt |
| Maximum Usable Memory | 2 GB |
| Shared Memory | 0 |
| Transistor Count | 1,500 Million |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x 16 |
| Decoder | UVD3 |
AMD Radeon HD 7850M Features
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Some of the main features of the AMD Radeon HD 7850M laptop graphics cards that sets it apart from its competitors are:
1. UVD3 Decoder
This GPU makes use of the video rendering software UVD3 video decoder. This helps you watch your favorite movies at any resolution, rendered directly from the graphics card. Now you can watch movies in formats like MPEG4, AVC, MGEPG2 Flash and DivX, and the newer MVC (Multi-View Code).
2. Enduro Graphics Switching
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Most AMD cards in this price range make use of the Enduro technology, and this card is no different. Enduro will allow you to switch with your integrated graphics card manually and automatically, depending on GPU usage. This new switchable graphics system is way better than its predecessor – the AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics. Its performance is similar to the NVIDIA Optimus but gets beaten by a small margin.
3. Eyefinity
AMD Eyefinity allows you to support the attachment of other monitors as well, allowing you to connect up to six more. Therefore, you can simply use a splitter cable from the one HDMI port this card provides, which is pretty commendable. However, using multiple monitors has only one drawback – Enduro will be disabled.
4. Super Power Saving
The AMD Radeon HD 7850M discrete graphics card makes use of three different systems to save power as much as possible. These are
- ZeroCore: This feature allows you to save your power consumption more effectively when the monitor gets turned off.
- Power Gating: The various chips and pins of this graphics card are grouped in several blocks. Depending on the current usage of these blocks, only the ones in use will be on.
- PowerTune: The power usage of this card is calculated using a measurement known as TDP. Depending on the card’s usage, its overclocking and underclocking will be automatically done. Therefore, this will help you in saving power when you are not intensely gaming.
5. Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio (DDMA)
The audio output provided with this card and the CPU processor will be dictated with the use of the laptop’s integrated HD audio processor. Having this graphics card will also enhance the playback of TrueHD Audio with the help of Realtek HD Audio Manager. In addition, it will also allow you to simultaneously switch between the laptop audio and other connected speakers and headphones.
AMD Radeon HD 7850M Review
Based on the performance that I got using these in a few laptops that come with this GPU, the two main aspects that I will explain are:
Benchmarks
As far as benchmarks are concerned, the AMD Radeon HD 7850M driver performs similarly to its bigger brother, the AMD Radeon HD 7870M. Both these GPUs were released on laptops at the same time. The performance of this card is similar to the NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti. Both provided the same benchmarks on TessMark.
Performance
The Radeon HD 7850M is better when DX11 gaming is concerned. In ultra settings, it ran older games like Metro 2033, The Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim, Dirt 3, and GTA 4. All the games ran on the highest settings at around the range of 20-30 fps. However, if you lower the graphics, these games will run much smoother at around 40-45 FPS.
As far as multiplayer games are concerned, this ran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at around 30-40 fps on the lower settings and 1920×1080 resolution. Therefore, I will not recommend this graphics card if you wish to play multiplayer games, where a minimum of 60fps is necessary for a stable gaming experience.
However, some games, like the Battlefield series, will run way better on NVIDIA cards.
Best Laptops That Use The AMD Radeon HD 7850M
If you want to buy laptops that contain the AMD Radeon HD 7850M, I would suggest you spend your money on these two laptops. I have used these two laptops to test the capabilities of this graphics card. However, these are pretty old and can be difficult to get on the market at this moment when so many new ones are available.
HP Envy 17 – 3200
This laptop runs on the AMD Radeon HD 7850M graphics card paired with the quad-core Intel Core i7 3820QM (3.7GHz clock speed). It has a vivid 17.3” display and 8GB RAM with a 550 GB hard disk. I was able to play games like Mass Effect 2 and 3 on medium to high settings at 45fps and 40fps, respectively.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions):-
Some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the AMD Radeon HD 7850M on the internet are:
Ans- The AMD Radeon HD 7850M was released on various laptops globally in April 2012. During that time, various mid to high-end laptops were using this laptop graphics card. It was pretty popular as a laptop graphics card during that era.
Ans- When it comes to supporting modern games in 2022, like God Of War, Marvel’s SpiderMan, Elden Ring, and lots more, the answer is no. Since the AMD Radeon HD 7850M is a pretty old notebook graphics card released back in 2012, it has become outdated by today’s standards. Therefore, it is better to buy an NVIDIA GeForce RTX or AMD RX graphics card to play modern video games.
Ans- With this graphics card, you can play games at low to medium settings and 30fps + are
• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
• Mass Effect Trilogy.
• Metro 2033.
• GTA 4.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
• Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Ans- When it comes to performance, the NVIDIA card that comes close to it is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti. The 7850M slightly outperforms the 560Ti in gaming, providing 5fps more than the 560 Ti in most games tested.
Final Verdict: Is The AMD Radeon HD 7850M Worth It In 2022?
In my opinion, the AMD Radeon HD 7850m is a pretty decent graphics card if you want to do some light gaming. Playing older games will be easier here since you will find this GPU is a pretty old laptop. Therefore, I would suggest better spending your money elsewhere and buying the newer AMD Vega and RX enhanced laptops or the NVIDIA GeForce GTX and RTX graphics cards.
| Pros | Cons |
| Overclocked performance is pretty stable. Pretty low priceDecent for light gaming, especially for playing older games. | It cannot run most modern multiplayer games. Overclocking becomes necessary to run most AAA games pre 2014 |
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