GeForce 9800 GTX vs Radeon HD 8870M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce 9800 GTX and Radeon HD 8870M, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce 9800 GTX stacks up against Radeon HD 8870M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 8870M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 8870M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon HD 8870M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce 9800 GTX Radeon HD 8870M
Power consumption (TDP) 140 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
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  • GeForce 9800 GTX is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 8870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX has 510 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 8870M.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 8870M - in Laptops.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is build with Tesla architecture, and Radeon HD 8870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce 9800 GTX is 963 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8870M.
  • GeForce 9800 GTX is manufactured by 65 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8870M is 3400 MHz higher, than GeForce 9800 GTX.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 7−8
ultra / 1080p 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 1−2 18−20
medium / 1080p 0−1 9−10
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 8870M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 1800% more, than GeForce 9800 GTX.

Full Specs

  GeForce 9800 GTX Radeon HD 8870M
Architecture Tesla GCN
Code name G92 Venus
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 28 March 2008 18 December 2012
Pipelines 128 640
Core clock speed 1688 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 754 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 65 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 43.2 billion/sec 31.00
Floating-point performance 432.1 gflops 992.0 gflops
Length 10.5" (26.7 cm)
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1100 MHz 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 70.4 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.1 (10_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 2.1 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 128
Bus support PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI Via Adapter
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI S/PDIF
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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