Radeon HD 6930 vs HD 7870

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 6930, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 7870
2012
2 GB GDDR5, 175 Watt
12.01
+65.2%

HD 7870 outperforms HD 6930 by an impressive 65% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking400533
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.902.00
Power efficiency4.952.82
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)TeraScale 3 (2010−2013)
GPU code namePitcairnCayman
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date5 March 2012 (12 years ago)1 December 2011 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$349 $180

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 7870 has 45% better value for money than HD 6930.

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 cores12801280
Core clock speed1000 MHz750 MHz
Number of transistors2,800 million2,640 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)175 Watt186 Watt
Texture fill rate80.0060.00
Floating-point processing power2.56 TFLOPS1.92 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs8080

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 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length241 mm220 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pin2x 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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1200 MHz1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth153.6 GB/s153.6 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-DisplayPort2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity+-
HDMI++

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model5.15.0
OpenGL4.64.4
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.2.131N/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:

900p84
+68%
50−55
−68%
Full HD63
+80%
35−40
−80%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Battlefield 5 35−40
+81%
21−24
−81%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+71.4%
14−16
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
+83.3%
18−20
−83.3%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+77.8%
45−50
−77.8%
Hitman 3 21−24
+91.7%
12−14
−91.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+82.9%
35−40
−82.9%
Metro Exodus 40−45
+66.7%
24−27
−66.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+83.3%
18−20
−83.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+85.7%
21−24
−85.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+72.5%
40−45
−72.5%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Battlefield 5 35−40
+81%
21−24
−81%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+71.4%
14−16
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
+83.3%
18−20
−83.3%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+77.8%
45−50
−77.8%
Hitman 3 21−24
+91.7%
12−14
−91.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+82.9%
35−40
−82.9%
Metro Exodus 40−45
+66.7%
24−27
−66.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+83.3%
18−20
−83.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+85.7%
21−24
−85.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
+66.7%
18−20
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+72.5%
40−45
−72.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+71.4%
14−16
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+75%
16−18
−75%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+77.8%
45−50
−77.8%
Hitman 3 21−24
+91.7%
12−14
−91.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+82.9%
35−40
−82.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+85.7%
21−24
−85.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20
+66.7%
12−14
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70
+72.5%
40−45
−72.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+83.3%
18−20
−83.3%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 21−24
+91.7%
12−14
−91.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
+80%
10−11
−80%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Far Cry 5 14−16
+75%
8−9
−75%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
+65.7%
35−40
−65.7%
Hitman 3 14−16
+66.7%
9−10
−66.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
+78.6%
14−16
−78.6%
Metro Exodus 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
+90%
10−11
−90%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+66.7%
45−50
−66.7%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
+66.7%
12−14
−66.7%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%
Hitman 3 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Horizon Zero Dawn 55−60
+86.7%
30−33
−86.7%
Metro Exodus 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Far Cry 5 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+83.3%
6−7
−83.3%

This is how HD 7870 and HD 6930 compete in popular games:

  • HD 7870 is 68% faster in 900p
  • HD 7870 is 80% faster in 1080p

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 12.01 7.27
Recency 5 March 2012 1 December 2011
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 175 Watt 186 Watt

HD 7870 has a 65.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 months, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 6.3% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 7870 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6930 in performance tests.


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
AMD Radeon HD 6930
Radeon HD 6930

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.


3.7 638 votes

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3.9 65 votes

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Questions & comments

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