Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon R9 280

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon R9 280. 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 R9 280. 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 R9 280
Power consumption (TDP) 188 Watt 200 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280 has 6% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 5870.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 280 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 280 has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5870.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 280 - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 5870 is 7 mm longer, than Radeon R9 280.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 5870 is 3550 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 280.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 35−40
ultra / 1080p 6−7 21−24
QHD / 1440p 1−2 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 24−27 60−65
medium / 1080p 14−16 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 227% more, than Radeon HD 5870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5870 Radeon R9 280
Architecture TeraScale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name Cypress Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 23 September 2009 4 March 2014
Pipelines 1600 1792
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Boost Clock 933 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 104.5
Floating-point performance 2,720.0 gflops 3,344 gflops
Length 282 mm 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 240 GB/s
DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 408 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 21.5 Mh/s
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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