AMD Radeon HD 6950 vs AMD Radeon R7 M465 Comparison

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon HD 6950 is the faster GPU, and it is not close. In the sole benchmark available, Geekbench OpenCL, the HD 6950 scores 6210 against the R7 M465's 5841, a 5.9% advantage. The HD 6950 also sits higher in the overall GPU percentile ranking at 36 versus the R7 M465's 33. For anyone choosing strictly on performance, the HD 6950 wins outright.

However, the R7 M465 is not without a case. It is a mobile part from 2016, while the HD 6950 is a desktop card from 2010. The R7 M465 is built on a 28 nm process versus 40 nm for the HD 6950, and it consumes far less power — the HD 6950 carries a 200 W TDP, a dual-slot cooler, and requires two 6-pin power connectors plus a 550 W power supply. The R7 M465 has none of those listed constraints, meaning it is a drop-in solution for laptops and compact systems where power and space are at a premium. The verdict: pick the HD 6950 for raw compute; pick the R7 M465 if the system cannot physically or electrically accommodate a 200 W desktop card.

Where Each One Wins

The HD 6950 wins the only benchmark contest recorded. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 6210 eclipses the R7 M465's 5841 by 369 points. That delta of -5.9% (from the R7 M465's perspective) is the entire competitive picture in terms of measured performance. The HD 6950 also has a higher percentile rank among all GPUs (36th) than the R7 M465 (33rd), confirming that the score difference is meaningful, not just noise.

The R7 M465 wins in the categories that are not about raw speed. It is a 28 nm chip with a 1,550 million transistor count on a 125 mm² die, versus the HD 6950's 40 nm process with 2,640 million transistors on 389 mm². The transistor density tells the story: 12.4M per mm² for the R7 M465 versus 6.8M per mm² for the HD 6950. That means the R7 M465 is a far more modern, efficient design. It also supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the HD 6950 is limited to DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and has no Vulkan support. For API compatibility, the R7 M465 is the clear winner.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is generational. The R7 M465 uses the GCN 3.0 architecture on the Topaz chip, part of the Gem System (R7 M400) generation. The HD 6950 uses the TeraScale 3 architecture on the Cayman chip, from the Northern Islands (HD 6900) generation. These are fundamentally different designs from different eras — GCN 3.0 is a modern compute-oriented architecture, while TeraScale 3 is an older, simpler shader-based design.

The HD 6950 compensates for its older architecture with brute force. It packs 1,408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The R7 M465 has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and just 8 ROPs. That is a 3.7x difference in shading units, a 3.7x difference in TMUs, and a 4x difference in ROPs. The HD 6950's pixel rate is 25.60 GPixel/s versus 8.192 GPixel/s for the R7 M465, and its texture rate is 70.40 GTexel/s versus 24.58 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 2.253 TFLOPS for the HD 6950 versus 786.4 GFLOPS for the R7 M465 — a 2.9x advantage.

Memory is another massive divider. Both have 2 GB of GDDR5, but the HD 6950 uses a 256-bit bus with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the R7 M465 is limited to a 64-bit bus with 36.00 GB/s. That is a 4.4x bandwidth advantage for the HD 6950. The R7 M465 does have a higher boost clock at 1024 MHz versus the HD 6950's unspecified clocks (the pack only lists a memory clock of 1250 MHz for the HD 6950), but that does not offset the architectural and memory disadvantages.

The HD 6950 also has a PCIe 2.0 x16 interface, while the R7 M465 uses PCIe 3.0 x8. The newer PCIe standard on the R7 M465 is a technical advantage, but the HD 6950's wider x16 lane count (even on older PCIe 2.0) may provide comparable bandwidth in practice. The HD 6950 lists display outputs (2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2), while the R7 M465's outputs are not specified.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6950, scoring 6210 in Geekbench OpenCL versus the R7 M465's 5841, a 5.9% lead.

Q: Does the R7 M465 support newer graphics APIs than the HD 6950?

A: Yes. The R7 M465 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The HD 6950 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4, with no Vulkan support listed.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The HD 6950, with 160.0 GB/s over a 256-bit bus, versus the R7 M465's 36.00 GB/s over a 64-bit bus. That is a 4.4x difference.

Q: Is the R7 M465 more power-efficient than the HD 6950?

A: The data strongly suggests so. The HD 6950 has a 200 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, two 6-pin power connectors, and a 550 W suggested PSU. The R7 M465 lists none of these requirements, indicating it is a lower-power mobile part.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The R7 M465 has 12.4 million transistors per mm², while the HD 6950 has 6.8 million per mm². The R7 M465 is built on a 28 nm process versus 40 nm for the HD 6950.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The HD 6950, at the 36th percentile, versus the R7 M465 at the 33rd percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only head-to-head benchmark recorded is Geekbench OpenCL. The HD 6950 wins with a score of 6210 against the R7 M465's 5841. The delta is -5.9% from the R7 M465's perspective, meaning the HD 6950 is about 6% faster. That is a decisive margin in a single benchmark — not a tie, not a photo finish, but a clear win for the older, larger card.

The HD 6950's win is even more impressive given the context. It is a 2010 desktop part with a 2,640 million transistor chip on a 389 mm² die, using an older TeraScale 3 architecture. The R7 M465 is a 2016 mobile part with a newer GCN 3.0 architecture, a smaller 125 mm² die, and a more efficient 28 nm process. Despite the R7 M465's newer design, the HD 6950's raw resources — 1,408 shading units, 88 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 256-bit memory bus, and 2.253 TFLOPS FP32 — simply overwhelm the R7 M465's 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, 8 ROPs, 64-bit bus, and 786.4 GFLOPS.

The HD 6950 also wins the percentile comparison: 36th percentile versus 33rd for the R7 M465. While both are firmly in the lower half of all GPUs, the HD 6950's higher percentile confirms that its OpenCL lead is representative of a broader performance advantage, not a one-off benchmark anomaly. The nearest rivals for each card further illustrate the HD 6950's stronger position: the HD 6950 trades nearly evenly with cards like the AMD FirePro W600 (6223, -0.2% delta) and NVIDIA Quadro K620 (6282, -1.1%), while the R7 M465 sits near the AMD Radeon R5 M435 (5859, -0.3%) and Intel UHD Graphics 730 (5929, -1.5%). The HD 6950 is competing in a higher performance tier.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every specification that matters for performance. Here are the fields where they diverge:

• Architecture: GCN 3.0 (R7 M465) vs. TeraScale 3 (HD 6950)
• Chip: Topaz vs. Cayman
• Process Node: 28 nm vs. 40 nm
• Transistors: 1,550 million vs. 2,640 million
• Die Size: 125 mm² vs. 389 mm²
• Transistor Density: 12.4M / mm² vs. 6.8M / mm²
• Memory Clock: 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective) vs. 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective)
• Memory Bus Width: 64 bit vs. 256 bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 36.00 GB/s vs. 160.0 GB/s
• Shading Units: 384 vs. 1,408
• TMUs: 24 vs. 88
• ROPs: 8 vs. 32
• Pixel Rate: 8.192 GPixel/s vs. 25.60 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 24.58 GTexel/s vs. 70.40 GTexel/s
• FP32: 786.4 GFLOPS vs. 2.253 TFLOPS
• FP16: 786.4 GFLOPS (1:1) vs. not listed
• TDP: not listed vs. 200 W
• Slot Width: not listed vs. Dual-slot
• Power Connectors: not listed vs. 2x 6-pin
• Suggested PSU: not listed vs. 550 W
• Bus Interface: PCIe 3.0 x8 vs. PCIe 2.0 x16
• Display Outputs: not listed vs. 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2
• DirectX: 12 (12_0) vs. 11.2 (11_0)
• OpenGL: 4.6 vs. 4.4
• Vulkan: 1.2.170 vs. not listed
• Dimensions: not listed vs. 286 mm length, 126 mm height, 42 mm width
• Release Date: 2016-05-14 vs. 2010-12-13
• Launch MSRP: not listed vs. 299 USD

The R7 M465 has a higher base clock (730 MHz) and a boost clock (1024 MHz), while the HD 6950's core clocks are not specified. But the HD 6950's advantages in memory bandwidth, shading units, TMUs, ROPs, and raw FP32 throughput are overwhelming. The R7 M465 counters with a more modern feature set — DirectX 12, Vulkan, and a 1:1 FP16 ratio — but in terms of measured compute performance, the HD 6950 is the superior part.