Radeon 540X vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon 540X and Radeon HD 7870 XT, 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 Radeon 540X stacks up against Radeon HD 7870 XT, check out specs charts below.
Radeon HD 7870 XT

Radeon 540X is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon 540X 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 540X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon 540X Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7870 XT has 270% more power consumption, than Radeon 540X.
  • Radeon 540X is connected by PCIe 3.0 x8, and Radeon HD 7870 XT uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon 540X and Radeon HD 7870 XT have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon 540X is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - in Desktops.
  • Radeon 540X is build with GCN 4.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon 540X is manufactured by 14 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon 540X and Radeon HD 7870 XT is 6000 MHz.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 6−7 35−40
ultra / 1080p 3−4 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 14−16 60−65
medium / 1080p 7−8 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 412% more, than Radeon 540X.

Full Specs

  Radeon 540X Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture GCN 4.0 GCN 1.0
Code name Lexa Tahiti
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 12 August 2019 19 November 2012
Pipelines 512 1536
Core clock speed 925 MHz
Boost Clock 1219 MHz 975 MHz
Transistor count 2,200 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 14 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 33.47 93.60
Floating-point performance 2,995 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 6000 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 112.0 GB/s 192.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 6.4 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.0 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 346 Mh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.5 Mh/s
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