GeForce RTX 4090 vs Radeon HD 7870

Place in the ranking	405	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	2.99	18.83
Power efficiency	4.70	15.23
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	Pitcairn	AD102
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	5 March 2012 (12 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$349	$1,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 4090 has 530% better value for money than HD 7870.

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	1280	16384
Core clock speed	1000 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	80.00	1,290
Floating-point processing power	2.56 TFLOPS	82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	176
TMUs	80	512
Tensor Cores	no data	512
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	128

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 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	241 mm	304 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	1.01 TB/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	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Eyefinity	+	-
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.8
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	-	8.9

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 4090 100.00
+733%

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 4090 38533
+733%

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 4090 104598
+1589%

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 4090 137609
+545%

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	84 −733%	700−750 +733%
Full HD	69 −275%	259 +275%
1440p	24−27 −733%	200 +733%
4K	16−18 −794%	143 +794%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	5.06	6.17
1440p	14.54	8.00
4K	21.81	11.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

18−20

−1084%

225
+1084%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −739%	235 +739%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20 −1411%	287 +1411%
Battlefield 5	35−40 −542%	240−250 +542%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −1068%	222 +1068%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −321%	110−120 +321%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 −509%	200−210 +509%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −264%	290−300 +264%
Hitman 3	21−24 −461%	120−130 +461%
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65 −450%	350−400 +450%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −288%	150−160 +288%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −276%	120−130 +276%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 −1085%	450−500 +1085%
Watch Dogs: Legion	65−70 −123%	150−160 +123%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −625%	200−210 +625%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20 −1205%	248 +1205%
Battlefield 5	35−40 −542%	240−250 +542%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −1026%	214 +1026%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −321%	110−120 +321%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 −509%	200−210 +509%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −264%	290−300 +264%
Hitman 3	21−24 −461%	120−130 +461%
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65 −450%	350−400 +450%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −288%	150−160 +288%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −276%	120−130 +276%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 −1305%	548 +1305%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 −703%	240−250 +703%
Watch Dogs: Legion	65−70 −123%	150−160 +123%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −539%	179 +539%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20 −1058%	220 +1058%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −1005%	210 +1005%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −321%	110−120 +321%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −264%	290−300 +264%
Hitman 3	21−24 −461%	120−130 +461%
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65 −516%	394 +516%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 −1287%	541 +1287%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20 −1425%	305 +1425%
Watch Dogs: Legion	65−70 −122%	153 +122%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

−276%

120−130
+276%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	21−24 −622%	160−170 +622%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 −522%	110−120 +522%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −1192%	155 +1192%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9 −2188%	183 +2188%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 −531%	80−85 +531%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −2467%	154 +2467%
Far Cry 5	14−16 −500%	80−85 +500%
Forza Horizon 4	55−60 −367%	270−280 +367%
Hitman 3	14−16 −820%	130−140 +820%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −1452%	388 +1452%
Metro Exodus	18−20 −700%	152 +700%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −2553%	504 +2553%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −2133%	268 +2133%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 −220%	240−250 +220%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

20−22

−545%

120−130
+545%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−12 −700%	85−90 +700%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −667%	65−70 +667%
Hitman 3	8−9 −938%	80−85 +938%
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60 −87.5%	105 +87.5%
Metro Exodus	10−12 −1191%	140−150 +1191%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −2710%	281 +2710%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1614%	120 +1614%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −2300%	120 +2300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −767%	50−55 +767%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −3900%	80 +3900%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −733%	50−55 +733%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −1500%	250−260 +1500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2720%	282 +2720%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 −2240%	117 +2240%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−12

−909%

110−120
+909%

This is how HD 7870 and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 733% faster in 900p
RTX 4090 is 275% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 733% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 794% faster in 4K

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

in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 4090 is 3900% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RTX 4090 surpassed HD 7870 in all 72 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	12.00	100.00
Recency	5 March 2012	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	450 Watt

HD 7870 has 157.1% lower power consumption.

RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 733.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7870 in performance tests.

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