Radeon HD 6870 vs Radeon HD 7970

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 7970 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 HD 7970 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon HD 7970
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 300 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7970 has 98% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7970 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7970 has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7970 - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is 54 mm longer, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7970 is 325 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 HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 227% more, than Radeon HD 6870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon HD 7970
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name RV940 Barts Tahiti XT
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 October 2010 22 December 2011
Pipelines 1120 2048
Boost Clock 900 MHz 925 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 118.4
Floating-point performance 2,016.0 gflops 3,789 gflops
Length 220 mm 274 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1050 MHz 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 264 GB/s
Shared memory - -
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI + +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 213 Mh/s 485 Mh/s
Eyefinity + +
Design reference reference
CrossFire + +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
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