GeForce GTX 470 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 470 and Radeon HD 7870 XT, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 470 stacks up against Radeon HD 7870 XT, check out specs charts below.

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 470 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 215 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors Two 6-pins 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1280 MB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-HDMI 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • GeForce GTX 470 has 16% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • GeForce GTX 470 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7870 XT uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 470 has 1278 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 470 is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 470 is 290 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • GeForce GTX 470 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7870 XT is 258 mm longer, than GeForce GTX 470.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 4326 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 470.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 35−40
ultra / 1080p 10−11 21−24
QHD / 1440p 4−5 16−18
4K / 2160p 4−5 10−11
low / 720p 30−35 60−65
medium / 1080p 21−24 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 113% more, than GeForce GTX 470.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 470 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture Fermi GCN 1.0
Code name GF100 Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 12 April 2010 19 November 2012
Pipelines 448 1536
Core clock speed 1215 MHz 925 MHz
Boost Clock 975 MHz
Transistor count 3,100 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 34.0 billion/sec 93.60
Floating-point performance 1,088.6 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 9.5" (241 mm) (24.1 cm) 267 mm
Memory bus width 320 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1674 MHz (3348 data rate) 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 133.9 GB/s 192.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.2 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 448
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
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