GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile vs Radeon HD 7870

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 7870 with GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, including specs and performance data.

HD 7870
2012
2 GB GDDR5, 175 Watt
12.00

RTX 3060 Mobile outperforms HD 7870 by a whopping 171% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking405168
Place by popularitynot in top-10069
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.99no data
Power efficiency4.7027.91
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code namePitcairnGA106
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date5 March 2012 (12 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$349 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores12803840
Core clock speed1000 MHz900 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1425 MHz
Number of transistors2,800 million13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)175 Watt80 Watt
Texture fill rate80.00171.0
Floating-point processing power2.56 TFLOPS10.94 TFLOPS
ROPs3248
TMUs80120
Tensor Coresno data120
Ray Tracing Coresno data30

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).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length241 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinno data

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount2 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1200 MHz1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth153.6 GB/s336.0 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.16.5
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.22.0
Vulkan1.2.1311.2
CUDA-8.6

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.

HD 7870 12.00
RTX 3060 Mobile 32.57
+171%

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.

HD 7870 4625
RTX 3060 Mobile 12550
+171%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

HD 7870 6194
RTX 3060 Mobile 27419
+343%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 7870 21348
RTX 3060 Mobile 57333
+169%

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:

900p84
−162%
220−230
+162%
Full HD69
−42%
98
+42%
1440p24−27
−175%
66
+175%
4K14−16
−186%
40
+186%

Cost per frame, $

1080p5.06no data
1440p14.54no data
4K24.93no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
−442%
103
+442%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
−150%
70−75
+150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
−300%
76
+300%
Battlefield 5 35−40
−179%
100−110
+179%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
−175%
65−70
+175%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
−353%
86
+353%
Far Cry 5 27−30
−161%
70−75
+161%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
−148%
80−85
+148%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
−116%
170−180
+116%
Hitman 3 21−24
−361%
106
+361%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
−122%
140−150
+122%
Metro Exodus 40−45
−310%
164
+310%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
−142%
80−85
+142%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
−195%
110−120
+195%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
−71%
110−120
+71%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
−150%
70−75
+150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
−237%
64
+237%
Battlefield 5 35−40
−179%
100−110
+179%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
−175%
65−70
+175%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
−263%
69
+263%
Far Cry 5 27−30
−161%
70−75
+161%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
−148%
80−85
+148%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
−116%
170−180
+116%
Hitman 3 21−24
−370%
108
+370%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
−195%
189
+195%
Metro Exodus 40−45
−223%
129
+223%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
−209%
102
+209%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
−305%
158
+305%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
−127%
65−70
+127%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
−129%
158
+129%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
−150%
70−75
+150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
−195%
56
+195%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
−175%
65−70
+175%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
−226%
62
+226%
Far Cry 5 27−30
−161%
70−75
+161%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
−116%
170−180
+116%
Hitman 3 21−24
−317%
96
+317%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
−87.5%
120
+87.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
−259%
140
+259%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20
−290%
78
+290%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+50%
46
−50%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
−191%
96
+191%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 21−24
−170%
60−65
+170%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
−178%
50−55
+178%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
−192%
35−40
+192%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8−9
−500%
48
+500%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
−192%
35−40
+192%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
−550%
39
+550%
Far Cry 5 14−16
−171%
35−40
+171%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
−222%
180−190
+222%
Hitman 3 14−16
−327%
64
+327%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
−240%
85
+240%
Metro Exodus 18−20
−347%
85
+347%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
−432%
101
+432%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
−267%
40−45
+267%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
−54.7%
116
+54.7%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
−300%
80
+300%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 10−12
−191%
30−35
+191%
Far Cry New Dawn 9−10
−189%
24−27
+189%
Hitman 3 8−9
−413%
41
+413%
Horizon Zero Dawn 55−60
−186%
160−170
+186%
Metro Exodus 10−12
−445%
60
+445%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
−450%
55
+450%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
−200%
21−24
+200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 5−6
−120%
11
+120%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
−233%
20−22
+233%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
−650%
15
+650%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−200%
18−20
+200%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
−181%
45−50
+181%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
−500%
60
+500%
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6
−280%
19
+280%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
−300%
44
+300%

This is how HD 7870 and RTX 3060 Mobile compete in popular games:

  • RTX 3060 Mobile is 162% faster in 900p
  • RTX 3060 Mobile is 42% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 3060 Mobile is 175% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 3060 Mobile is 186% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 7870 is 50% faster.
  • in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3060 Mobile is 650% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 7870 is ahead in 1 test (1%)
  • RTX 3060 Mobile is ahead in 71 test (99%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 12.00 32.57
Recency 5 March 2012 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 175 Watt 80 Watt

RTX 3060 Mobile has a 171.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 118.8% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7870 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7870 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is a notebook one.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 7870
Radeon HD 7870
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile
GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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.


3.7 641 vote

Rate Radeon HD 7870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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4.1 5024 votes

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Questions & comments

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