Radeon 550X vs Radeon HD 7870

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon 550X and Radeon HD 7870, 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 550X stacks up against Radeon HD 7870, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  Radeon 550X Radeon HD 7870
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 175 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7870 has 250% more power consumption, than Radeon 550X.
  • Radeon 550X and Radeon HD 7870 have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon 550X is build with GCN 4.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon 550X is 82 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870.
  • Radeon 550X is manufactured by 14 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon 550X is 2200 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 7−8 24−27
ultra / 1080p 4−5 14−16
QHD / 1440p 0−1 9−10
4K / 2160p 6−7
low / 720p 16−18 45−50
medium / 1080p 9−10 30−33
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 222% more, than Radeon 550X.

Full Specs

  Radeon 550X Radeon HD 7870
Architecture GCN 4.0 GCN
Code name Lexa Pitcairn XT
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 27 March 2019 5 March 2012
Pipelines 512 1280
Core clock speed 1082 MHz 1000 MHz
Boost Clock 1218 MHz
Transistor count 2,200 million 2800 Million
Manufacturing process technology 14 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 38.98
Length 145 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 7000 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 112.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0) DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1
Shader Model 6.4
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.39 kh/s
Eyefinity +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.63 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 16.6 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 145 Sol/s
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