Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon HD 6970

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6970. Here you can take a closer look at graphics cards specs, such as core clock speed, memory type and size, display connectors, etc. The price, overall benchmark and gaming performances are usually defining factors when it comes to choosing between Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6970. Make sure that the graphics card has compatible dimensions and will properly fit in your new or current computer case. Also these graphics cards may have different system power recommendations, so take that into consideration and upgrade your PSU if necessary.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5870 Radeon HD 6970
Power consumption (TDP) 188 Watt 550 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 DDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 6970 has 192% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 5870.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 2.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 6970 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5870.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 6970 - with Terascale 2.
  • Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 6970 are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is 15 mm longer, than Radeon HD 6970.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 5870 is 3425 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 14−16
ultra / 1080p 6−7 9−10
QHD / 1440p 1−2 3−4
low / 720p 24−27 30−35
medium / 1080p 14−16 18−20
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 36% more, than Radeon HD 5870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5870 Radeon HD 6970
Architecture TeraScale 2 Terascale 2
Code name Cypress Cayman
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 23 September 2009 14 December 2010
Pipelines 1600 1536
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Boost Clock 880 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 2,640 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 84.48
Floating-point performance 2,720.0 gflops 2,703.4 gflops
Length 282 mm 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 273 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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