Radeon HD 5850 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT. 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 5850 and Radeon HD 7870 XT. 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 5850 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7870 XT has 22% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7870 XT uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7870 XT has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 200 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Radeon HD 5850 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7870 XT is 26 mm longer, than Radeon HD 5850.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 4000 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5850.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 9−10 35−40
ultra / 1080p 5−6 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 21−24 60−65
medium / 1080p 12−14 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 241% more, than Radeon HD 5850.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5850 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name Cypress Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 30 September 2009 19 November 2012
Pipelines 1440 1536
Core clock speed 725 MHz 925 MHz
Boost Clock 975 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 52.20 93.60
Floating-point performance 2,088.0 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 241 mm 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2000 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s 192.0 GB/s
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 346 Mh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.5 Mh/s
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