ATI Radeon HD 5850 vs GeForce 8800 GTX

Place in the ranking	966	615
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.02	0.59
Power efficiency	0.68	2.36
Architecture	Tesla (2006−2010)	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	G80	Cypress
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	8 November 2006 (18 years ago)	30 September 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$599	$299

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

ATI HD 5850 has 2850% better value for money than 8800 GTX.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	575	1440
Core clock speed	576 MHz	725 MHz
Number of transistors	681 million	2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology	90 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	155 Watt	151 Watt
Texture fill rate	36.86	52.20
Floating-point processing power	0.3456 TFLOPS	2.088 TFLOPS
ROPs	24	32
TMUs	32	72

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 1.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	270 mm	241 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	2x 6-pin
SLI options	+	-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	768 MB	1 GB
Memory bus width	384 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	1000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	86.4 GB/s	128.0 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.1 (10_0)	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	4.0	5.0
OpenGL	3.3	4.4
OpenCL	1.1	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	+	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

8800 GTX 1.53

ATI HD 5850 5.15
+237%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

8800 GTX 590

ATI HD 5850 1988
+237%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	16−18 −269%	59 +269%
Full HD	16−18 −244%	55 +244%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

37.44

5.44

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

9−10

+0%

9−10

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Battlefield 5	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Far Cry 5	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Hitman 3	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Metro Exodus	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Battlefield 5	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Far Cry 5	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Hitman 3	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Metro Exodus	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Far Cry 5	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Hitman 3	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

+0%

14−16

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Far Cry 5	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Hitman 3	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

+0%

9−10

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Hitman 3	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

+0%

6−7

+0%

This is how 8800 GTX and ATI HD 5850 compete in popular games:

ATI HD 5850 is 269% faster in 900p
ATI HD 5850 is 244% faster in 1080p

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 68 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.53	5.15
Recency	8 November 2006	30 September 2009
Maximum RAM amount	768 MB	1 GB
Chip lithography	90 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	155 Watt	151 Watt

ATI HD 5850 has a 236.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 125% more advanced lithography process, and 2.6% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 5850 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 8800 GTX in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.