ATI Radeon HD 3870 vs HD 6450 GDDR5

Place in the ranking	1126	1000
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	0.05
Power efficiency	2.46	0.94
Architecture	Terascale 2 (2009−2015)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	Caicos	RV670
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	18 April 2011 (13 years ago)	19 November 2007 (17 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$269

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

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

no data

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	160	320
Core clock speed	750 MHz	777 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	27 Watt	106 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	12.43
Floating-point processing power	no data	0.4973 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	16
TMUs	no data	16

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	no data	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	no data	241 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 6-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	GDDR4
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	1126 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	72.06 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

no data

2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX	11	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	no data	4.1
OpenGL	no data	3.3
OpenCL	no data	N/A
Vulkan	-	N/A

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	7 −42.9%	10−12 +42.9%
Full HD	15 −40%	21−24 +40%
1200p	5 −40%	7−8 +40%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

no data

12.81

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −45.5%	16−18 +45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −45.5%	16−18 +45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −25%	10−11 +25%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −45.5%	16−18 +45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
Far Cry 5	10−11 −40%	14−16 +40%
Fortnite	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −25%	10−11 +25%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	12−14 −33.3%	16−18 +33.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	6−7 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%
World of Tanks	29 −37.9%	40−45 +37.9%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −45.5%	16−18 +45.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
Far Cry 5	10−11 −40%	14−16 +40%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −25%	10−11 +25%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	12−14 −33.3%	16−18 +33.3%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	5−6 −40%	7−8 +40%
World of Tanks	5−6 −40%	7−8 +40%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	5−6 −40%	7−8 +40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
Valorant	6−7 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2	14−16 −40%	21−24 +40%
Grand Theft Auto V	14−16 −40%	21−24 +40%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −40%	21−24 +40%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Dota 2	14−16 −40%	21−24 +40%
Far Cry 5	0−1	0−1
Valorant	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%

This is how HD 6450 GDDR5 and ATI HD 3870 compete in popular games:

ATI HD 3870 is 43% faster in 900p
ATI HD 3870 is 40% faster in 1080p
ATI HD 3870 is 40% faster in 1200p

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.93	1.39
Recency	18 April 2011	19 November 2007
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	40 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	27 Watt	106 Watt

HD 6450 GDDR5 has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 292.6% lower power consumption.

ATI HD 3870, on the other hand, has a 49.5% higher aggregate performance score.

The Radeon HD 3870 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5 in performance tests.

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