Radeon RX 590 vs ATI HD 4870 X2

Place in the ranking	732	229
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.15	25.05
Power efficiency	0.81	9.55
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	R700	Polaris 30
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	12 August 2008 (16 years ago)	15 November 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$550	$279

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 590 has 16600% better value for money than ATI HD 4870 X2.

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	800	2304
Core clock speed	700 MHz	1469 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1545 MHz
Number of transistors	956 million	5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	286 Watt	175 Watt
Texture fill rate	28.00	222.5
Floating-point processing power	1.12 TFLOPS	7.119 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	32
TMUs	40	144

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 2.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	267 mm	241 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	1x 8-pin

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	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	256.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

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	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

FreeSync

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	4.1	6.4
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	2.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2.131

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.

ATI HD 4870 X2 3.40

RX 590 24.38
+617%

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.

ATI HD 4870 X2 1309

RX 590 9393
+618%

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:

Full HD	14−16 −621%	101 +621%
1440p	8−9 −625%	58 +625%
4K	4−5 −775%	35 +775%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	39.29	2.76
1440p	68.75	4.81
4K	137.50	7.97

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

40−45

+0%

40−45

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	65 +0%	65 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	86 +0%	86 +0%
Battlefield 5	136 +0%	136 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	69 +0%	69 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Far Cry 5	90 +0%	90 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	90 +0%	90 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	274 +0%	274 +0%
Hitman 3	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	301 +0%	301 +0%
Metro Exodus	124 +0%	124 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	91 +0%	91 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	140 +0%	140 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	272 +0%	272 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	113 +0%	113 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	73 +0%	73 +0%
Battlefield 5	122 +0%	122 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	64 +0%	64 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Far Cry 5	74 +0%	74 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	71 +0%	71 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	259 +0%	259 +0%
Hitman 3	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	287 +0%	287 +0%
Metro Exodus	97 +0%	97 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	74 +0%	74 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	114 +0%	114 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	261 +0%	261 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	39 +0%	39 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	62 +0%	62 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	46 +0%	46 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Far Cry 5	55 +0%	55 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	91 +0%	91 +0%
Hitman 3	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	96 +0%	96 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	100 +0%	100 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	51 +0%	51 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35 +0%	35 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	55 +0%	55 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	38 +0%	38 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Hitman 3	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	72 +0%	72 +0%
Metro Exodus	58 +0%	58 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70 +0%	70 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 +0%	30−33 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	203 +0%	203 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	39 +0%	39 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	26 +0%	26 +0%
Hitman 3	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	57 +0%	57 +0%
Metro Exodus	36 +0%	36 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	32 +0%	32 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	19 +0%	19 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	42 +0%	42 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20 +0%	20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Far Cry 5	17 +0%	17 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	46 +0%	46 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40 +0%	40 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	13 +0%	13 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

This is how ATI HD 4870 X2 and RX 590 compete in popular games:

RX 590 is 621% faster in 1080p
RX 590 is 625% faster in 1440p
RX 590 is 775% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.40	24.38
Recency	12 August 2008	15 November 2018
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	286 Watt	175 Watt

RX 590 has a 617.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 358.3% more advanced lithography process, and 63.4% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 590 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in performance tests.

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