Radeon HD 7870M vs Radeon HD 8870M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M, 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 Radeon HD 7870M stacks up against Radeon HD 8870M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M are only used in laptop graphics. They have lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon HD 7870M or Radeon HD 8870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7870M Radeon HD 8870M
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
  Check Price Check Price
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M are build with GCN architecture.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 75 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8870M.
  • Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon HD 8870M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8870M is 500 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 6−7 7−8
ultra / 1080p 4−5 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 16−18 18−20
medium / 1080p 8−9 9−10
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 8870M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 11% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7870M Radeon HD 8870M
Architecture GCN GCN
Code name Heathrow XT Venus
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 24 April 2012 18 December 2012
Pipelines 640 640
Core clock speed 800 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 1,500 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 32.00 31.00
Floating-point performance 1,024 gflops 992.0 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 64 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_1) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
  Check Price Check Price