Radeon HD 6870 vs Radeon Sky 500

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon Sky 500 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 Sky 500 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon Sky 500
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 150 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 6870 has 0% more power consumption, than Radeon Sky 500.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon Sky 500 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon Sky 500 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 Sky 500 - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon Sky 500 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon Sky 500 is 22 mm longer, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon Sky 500 is 3750 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6870.

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 12−14 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon Sky 500 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 227% more, than Radeon HD 6870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon Sky 500
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name RV940 Barts Pitcairn
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 October 2010 27 March 2013
Pipelines 1120 1280
Core clock speed 950 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 76.00
Floating-point performance 2,016.0 gflops 2,432 gflops
Length 220 mm 242 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1050 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 154 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 213 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Form factor full height / full length
DisplayPort count 1
Dual-link DVI support +
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