Radeon HD 6870 vs Radeon R9 380X

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon R9 380X 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 R9 380X will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon R9 380X
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 190 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon R9 380X has 25% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon R9 380X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 380X 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 R9 380X - with GCN 3.0.
  • Radeon HD 6870 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 380X - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Radeon R9 380X is 1 mm longer, than Radeon HD 6870.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 6870 is 80 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 380X.

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 R9 380X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 227% more, than Radeon HD 6870.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6870 Radeon R9 380X
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 3.0
Code name RV940 Barts Antigua
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 October 2010 19 November 2015
Pipelines 1120 2048
Boost Clock 900 MHz 970 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 124.2
Floating-point performance 2,016.0 gflops 3,973 gflops
Length 220 mm 221 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1050 MHz 970 MHz
Memory bandwidth 134.4 GB/s 182.4 GB/s
Shared memory -
Shader Model 5.0 6.3
OpenGL 4.4 4.5
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.58 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0
HDMI + +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 213 Mh/s
Eyefinity + +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
TrueAudio +
ZeroCore +
Mantle +
Design reference reference
Bridgeless CrossFire +
Number of Eyefinity displays 6
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire + +
VCE +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.89 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.63 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 175 Sol/s
Compute units 32
Form factor full height / full length
High bandwidth memory (HBM) -
LiquidVR +
FRTC +
  Check Price Check Price