Radeon HD 4870 vs Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire

In this comparison between Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 4870 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire 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 6990M Crossfire here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 4870 Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2x2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 4870.
  • Radeon HD 4870 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 4870 is build with TeraScale architecture, and Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 4870 is 35 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire.
  • Radeon HD 4870 is manufactured by 55 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 4870 is 2700 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 3−4 35−40
ultra / 1080p 1−2 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 14−16 60−65
medium / 1080p 6−7 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 583% more, than Radeon HD 4870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 4870 Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
Architecture TeraScale Terascale 2
Code name RV770 Blackcomb XTX
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 25 June 2008 12 July 2011
Pipelines 800 2240
Core clock speed 750 MHz 715 MHz
Transistor count 956 million 2x1700 Million
Manufacturing process technology 55 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 30.00
Floating-point performance 1,200.0 gflops
Length 250 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 3600 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 10.1 (10_1) DirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Shader Model 4.1
OpenGL 3.3
OpenCL 1.1
Vulkan N/A
Laptop size large
  Check Price Check Price