This work is devoted to investigating the difference in flow and heat transfer characteristics between vertical upward flow and horizontal flow of supercritical carbon dioxide (\rm sCO_2) based on the pseudo-boiling theory and the experimental parameters: mass flux G = 496–1100 kg/m²s, heat flux q_w = 54.4–300.2 kW/m^2, and pressure P = 7.531–20.513 MPa. The differences in flow and heat transfer characteristics between horizontal upward tube and vertical upward tube are compared at different mass fluxes, heat fluxes and pressures fully. Finally, unlike the classical treatment of flow and heat transfer for supercritical fluid, single-phase fluid assumption is abandoned, instead, the pseudo-boiling theory is introduced to deal with the flow transfer and heat transfer of \rm sCO_2 in the two tubes. Supercritical fluid is regarded as a multiphase structure in this work, including a vapor-like layer near the wall and a liquid-like fluid in tube core. The results are indicated below. 1) In terms of heat transfer, the inner-wall temperature of the vertical upward tube and the bottom generatrix of horizontal tube are basically the same under normal heat transfer mode. When the heat transfer deterioration occurs in the vertical upward tube, larger supercritical boiling number (SBO) will cause the wall temperature peak of the vertical upward tube to be much higher than the wall temperature at top generatrix of the horizontal tube at the corresponding enthalpy. The SBO (SBO = 5.126×10^–4) distinguishes between normal heat transfer deterioration and heat transfer deterioration in the vertical upward tube. In the horizontal tubes, SBO dominates the maximum wall temperature difference between the top generatrix and the bottom generatrix. Comparing with vertical upward tubes, higher q_w/G is required for the heat transfer deterioration of supercritical fluid in the horizontal tubes under the same pressure. 2) In terms of flow, the increase in slope of pressure drop in the vertical upward tube is due to the orifice contraction effect. The mechanism that dominates the variation of pressure drop in the horizontal tube is the flow stratification effect, and we show that Froude number Fr_ave can be the similarity criterion number to connect the temperature difference between the top and bottom generatrix of horizontal tube and the pressure drop. The analysis suggests that mechanisms governing horizontal flow and vertical flow of \rm sCO_2 are different in heat transfer deterioration mode. For the vertical flow, the SBO plays a leading role, while for the horizontal flow, the Fr plays an indispensable role.