Radeon HD 6870 vs Radeon R9 M270X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon R9 M270X 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 6870 will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 M270X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon R9 M270X
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M270X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M270X has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 M270X - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 M270X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M270X is 75 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6870.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 6−7
ultra / 1080p 6−7 4−5
QHD / 1440p 1−2 0−1
low / 720p 24−27 16−18
medium / 1080p 12−14 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6870 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 55% more, than Radeon R9 M270X.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon R9 M270X
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name RV940 Barts Venus
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 October 2010 21 March 2014
Pipelines 1120 640
Core clock speed 725 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz 775 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 31.00
Floating-point performance 2,016.0 gflops 1,536 gflops
Length 220 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1050 MHz 1125 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory -
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 213 Mh/s
Eyefinity + +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Compute units 10
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