GeForce GTX 260M SLI vs Radeon HD 5870

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 260M SLI and Radeon HD 5870, 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 GTX 260M SLI stacks up against Radeon HD 5870, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 260M SLI is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GTX 260M SLI 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 GeForce GTX 260M SLI here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 260M SLI Radeon HD 5870
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 188 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 5870 has 25% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 260M SLI.
  • GeForce GTX 260M SLI has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5870.
  • GeForce GTX 260M SLI is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 5870 - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 260M SLI is build with G9x architecture, and Radeon HD 5870 - with TeraScale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 5870 is 300 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 260M SLI.
  • GeForce GTX 260M SLI is manufactured by 55 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 5870 - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 5870 is 3850 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 260M SLI.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 10−12
ultra / 1080p 5−6 6−7
QHD / 1440p 0−1 1−2
low / 720p 20−22 24−27
medium / 1080p 10−12 14−16
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 27% more, than GeForce GTX 260M SLI.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 260M SLI Radeon HD 5870
Architecture G9x TeraScale 2
Code name NB9E-GTX Cypress
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 2 March 2009 23 September 2009
Pipelines 224 1600
Core clock speed 550 MHz 850 MHz
Transistor count 1508 Million 2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology 55 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00
Floating-point performance 2,720.0 gflops
Length 282 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 950 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 10, Shader 4.0 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.4
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
Laptop size large
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