Radeon 540 vs RX 470

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon RX 470 and Radeon 540, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

RX 470
2016
4 GB GDDR5, 120 Watt
20.99
+485%

RX 470 outperforms 540 by a whopping 485% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking258717
Place by popularity55not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation17.630.10
Power efficiency12.195.00
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameEllesmereLexa
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date4 August 2016 (8 years ago)20 April 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$179 $79

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 470 has 17530% better value for money than Radeon 540.

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 cores2048384
Core clock speed926 MHz1183 MHz
Boost clock speed1206 MHz1124 MHz
Number of transistors5,700 million2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)120 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate154.428.39
Floating-point processing power4.94 TFLOPS0.9085 TFLOPS
ROPs3216
TMUs12824

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 3.0 x8
Length241 mm145 mm
Width2-slot1-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinNone

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 amount4 GB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit32 Bit
Memory clock speed1650 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth211.2 GB/s24 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 HDMI, 3x DisplayPort2x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

FreeSync+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_0)12 (12_0)
Shader Model6.46.7
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.02.1
Vulkan1.2.1311.3

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.

RX 470 20.99
+485%
Radeon 540 3.59

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.

RX 470 8096
+485%
Radeon 540 1383

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 HD71
+492%
12−14
−492%
1440p41
+486%
7−8
−486%
4K36
+500%
6−7
−500%

Cost per frame, $

1080p2.526.58
1440p4.3711.29
4K4.9713.17

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50
+557%
7−8
−557%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 35−40
+600%
5−6
−600%
Battlefield 5 65−70
+590%
10−11
−590%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+514%
7−8
−514%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+513%
8−9
−513%
Far Cry New Dawn 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+510%
21−24
−510%
Hitman 3 40−45
+486%
7−8
−486%
Horizon Zero Dawn 100−105
+525%
16−18
−525%
Metro Exodus 70−75
+500%
12−14
−500%
Red Dead Redemption 2 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 102
+538%
16−18
−538%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+488%
16−18
−488%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50
+557%
7−8
−557%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 35−40
+600%
5−6
−600%
Battlefield 5 65−70
+590%
10−11
−590%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+514%
7−8
−514%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+513%
8−9
−513%
Far Cry New Dawn 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+510%
21−24
−510%
Hitman 3 40−45
+486%
7−8
−486%
Horizon Zero Dawn 100−105
+525%
16−18
−525%
Metro Exodus 70−75
+500%
12−14
−500%
Red Dead Redemption 2 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 88
+529%
14−16
−529%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 45−50
+488%
8−9
−488%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+488%
16−18
−488%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50
+557%
7−8
−557%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 35−40
+600%
5−6
−600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+514%
7−8
−514%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+560%
5−6
−560%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+513%
8−9
−513%
Forza Horizon 4 120−130
+510%
21−24
−510%
Hitman 3 40−45
+486%
7−8
−486%
Horizon Zero Dawn 74
+517%
12−14
−517%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 67
+570%
10−11
−570%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40
+567%
6−7
−567%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+488%
16−18
−488%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 55−60
+522%
9−10
−522%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 40−45
+567%
6−7
−567%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
+540%
5−6
−540%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21−24
+600%
3−4
−600%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
+667%
3−4
−667%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
+500%
2−3
−500%
Far Cry 5 24−27
+500%
4−5
−500%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+556%
18−20
−556%
Hitman 3 24−27
+525%
4−5
−525%
Horizon Zero Dawn 53
+489%
9−10
−489%
Metro Exodus 46
+557%
7−8
−557%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 51
+538%
8−9
−538%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
+500%
4−5
−500%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+486%
21−24
−486%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
+600%
5−6
−600%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 21−24
+600%
3−4
−600%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
+700%
2−3
−700%
Hitman 3 16−18
+700%
2−3
−700%
Horizon Zero Dawn 100−110
+500%
18−20
−500%
Metro Exodus 21−24
+667%
3−4
−667%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
+633%
3−4
−633%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
+500%
2−3
−500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5 0−1
Far Cry 5 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Forza Horizon 4 27−30
+625%
4−5
−625%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 25
+525%
4−5
−525%
Watch Dogs: Legion 9−10
+800%
1−2
−800%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 18−20
+500%
3−4
−500%

This is how RX 470 and Radeon 540 compete in popular games:

  • RX 470 is 492% faster in 1080p
  • RX 470 is 486% faster in 1440p
  • RX 470 is 500% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 20.99 3.59
Recency 4 August 2016 20 April 2017
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 1 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 120 Watt 50 Watt

RX 470 has a 484.7% higher aggregate performance score, and a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount.

Radeon 540, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 months, and 140% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 470 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 540 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 RX 470
Radeon RX 470
AMD Radeon 540
Radeon 540

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.


4.2 4255 votes

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3.1 46 votes

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.