GeForce RTX 4080 vs ATI Radeon HD 5970

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 5970 and GeForce RTX 4080, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

ATI HD 5970
2009
1 GB GDDR5, 294 Watt
5.81

RTX 4080 outperforms ATI HD 5970 by a whopping 1428% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking6044
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.3629.11
Power efficiency1.3819.37
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code nameHemlockAD103
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date18 November 2009 (15 years ago)20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$699 $1,199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

RTX 4080 has 7986% better value for money than ATI HD 5970.

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 cores1600 ×29728
Core clock speed725 MHz2205 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2505 MHz
Number of transistors2,154 million45,900 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)294 Watt320 Watt
Texture fill rate58.00 ×2761.5
Floating-point processing power2.32 TFLOPS ×248.74 TFLOPS
ROPs32 ×2112
TMUs80 ×2304
Tensor Coresno data304
Ray Tracing Coresno data76

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).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length305 mm310 mm
Width2-slot3-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin1x 16-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 typeGDDR5GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount1 GB ×216 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit ×2256 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz1400 MHz
Memory bandwidth128.0 GB/s ×2716.8 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.7
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.23.0
VulkanN/A1.3
CUDA-8.9
DLSS-+

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.

ATI HD 5970 5.81
RTX 4080 88.80
+1428%

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 5970 2263
RTX 4080 34582
+1428%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

ATI HD 5970 3690
RTX 4080 57903
+1469%

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 HD14−16
−1571%
234
+1571%
1440p10−12
−1530%
163
+1530%
4K7−8
−1429%
107
+1429%

Cost per frame, $

1080p49.93
−874%
5.12
+874%
1440p69.90
−850%
7.36
+850%
4K99.86
−791%
11.21
+791%
  • RTX 4080 has 874% lower cost per frame in 1080p
  • RTX 4080 has 850% lower cost per frame in 1440p
  • RTX 4080 has 791% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 240−250
+0%
240−250
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 200−210
+0%
200−210
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 231
+0%
231
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 227
+0%
227
+0%
Battlefield 5 190−200
+0%
190−200
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 217
+0%
217
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 231
+0%
231
+0%
Far Cry 5 223
+0%
223
+0%
Fortnite 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
Forza Horizon 5 249
+0%
249
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+0%
170−180
+0%
Valorant 550−600
+0%
550−600
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 205
+0%
205
+0%
Battlefield 5 190−200
+0%
190−200
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 202
+0%
202
+0%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 270−280
+0%
270−280
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 210
+0%
210
+0%
Dota 2 249
+0%
249
+0%
Far Cry 5 218
+0%
218
+0%
Fortnite 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
Forza Horizon 5 239
+0%
239
+0%
Grand Theft Auto V 178
+0%
178
+0%
Metro Exodus 213
+0%
213
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+0%
170−180
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 545
+0%
545
+0%
Valorant 550−600
+0%
550−600
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 190−200
+0%
190−200
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 170
+0%
170
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 190
+0%
190
+0%
Dota 2 233
+0%
233
+0%
Far Cry 5 204
+0%
204
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+0%
170−180
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 259
+0%
259
+0%
Valorant 575
+0%
575
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 120−130
+0%
120−130
+0%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 500−550
+0%
500−550
+0%
Grand Theft Auto V 162
+0%
162
+0%
Metro Exodus 154
+0%
154
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+0%
170−180
+0%
Valorant 450−500
+0%
450−500
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 190−200
+0%
190−200
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 129
+0%
129
+0%
Far Cry 5 201
+0%
201
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 191
+0%
191
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 150−160
+0%
150−160
+0%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 82
+0%
82
+0%
Grand Theft Auto V 185
+0%
185
+0%
Metro Exodus 104
+0%
104
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 187
+0%
187
+0%
Valorant 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 130−140
+0%
130−140
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 29
+0%
29
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 63
+0%
63
+0%
Dota 2 227
+0%
227
+0%
Far Cry 5 140
+0%
140
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 300−350
+0%
300−350
+0%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 95−100
+0%
95−100
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

This is how ATI HD 5970 and RTX 4080 compete in popular games:

  • RTX 4080 is 1571% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 4080 is 1530% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 4080 is 1429% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 64 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 5.81 88.80
Recency 18 November 2009 20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 16 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 5 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 294 Watt 320 Watt

ATI HD 5970 has 8.8% lower power consumption.

RTX 4080, on the other hand, has a 1428.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4080 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 5970 in performance tests.

Vote for your favorite

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ATI Radeon HD 5970
Radeon HD 5970
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
GeForce RTX 4080

Other comparisons

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.6 44 votes

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4.1 4694 votes

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Questions & comments

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