Radeon HD 7870 XT vs RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) with Radeon HD 7870 XT, including specs and performance data.

RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
2020
15 Watt
9.03

HD 7870 XT outperforms RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) by a significant 28% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking476407
Place by popularity29not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data3.48
Power efficiency41.694.33
ArchitectureVega (2017−2020)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameVegaTahiti
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date7 January 2020 (4 years ago)19 November 2012 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$270

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 cores5121536
Core clock speedno data925 MHz
Boost clock speed2100 MHz975 MHz
Number of transistorsno data4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology7 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)15 Watt185 Watt
Texture fill rateno data93.60
Floating-point processing powerno data2.995 TFLOPS
ROPsno data32
TMUsno data96

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).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data267 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data2x 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 typeno dataGDDR5
Maximum RAM amountno data2 GB
Memory bus widthno data256 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1500 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data192.0 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 Connectorsno data1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX12_112 (11_1)
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-1.2.131

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 Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) 9.03
HD 7870 XT 11.58
+28.2%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) 3743
HD 7870 XT 6390
+70.7%

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 HD22
−22.7%
27−30
+22.7%
1440p16
−12.5%
18−21
+12.5%
4K10
−20%
12−14
+20%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data10.00
1440pno data15.00
4Kno data22.50

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 19
−26.3%
24−27
+26.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21−24
−22.7%
27−30
+22.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 20
−20%
24−27
+20%
Battlefield 5 27−30
−25%
35−40
+25%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
−26.3%
24−27
+26.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 14
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−14.3%
24−27
+14.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 24−27
−15.4%
30−33
+15.4%
Forza Horizon 4 60−65
−23%
75−80
+23%
Hitman 3 15
−20%
18−20
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55
−27.5%
65−70
+27.5%
Metro Exodus 35
−14.3%
40−45
+14.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2 33
−21.2%
40−45
+21.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 36
−25%
45−50
+25%
Watch Dogs: Legion 60−65
−25%
75−80
+25%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21−24
−22.7%
27−30
+22.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 16
−12.5%
18−20
+12.5%
Battlefield 5 27−30
−25%
35−40
+25%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
−26.3%
24−27
+26.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 10
−20%
12−14
+20%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−14.3%
24−27
+14.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 24−27
−15.4%
30−33
+15.4%
Forza Horizon 4 60−65
−23%
75−80
+23%
Hitman 3 15
−20%
18−20
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55
−27.5%
65−70
+27.5%
Metro Exodus 25
−20%
30−33
+20%
Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
−20%
30−33
+20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 27
−11.1%
30−33
+11.1%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
−20%
30−33
+20%
Watch Dogs: Legion 60−65
−25%
75−80
+25%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21−24
−22.7%
27−30
+22.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 14
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
−26.3%
24−27
+26.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 9
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−14.3%
24−27
+14.3%
Forza Horizon 4 60−65
−23%
75−80
+23%
Hitman 3 14
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24
−25%
30−33
+25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 23
−17.4%
27−30
+17.4%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 12
−16.7%
14−16
+16.7%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21
−14.3%
24−27
+14.3%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
−16.7%
21−24
+16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
−14.3%
16−18
+14.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 11
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%
Cyberpunk 2077 5
−20%
6−7
+20%
Far Cry 5 10−11
−20%
12−14
+20%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
−28.2%
50−55
+28.2%
Hitman 3 10
−20%
12−14
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 20
−20%
24−27
+20%
Metro Exodus 17
−23.5%
21−24
+23.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16
−12.5%
18−20
+12.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
−25%
10−11
+25%
Watch Dogs: Legion 59
−27.1%
75−80
+27.1%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 13
−23.1%
16−18
+23.1%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 8−9
−25%
10−11
+25%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%
Hitman 3 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
−21.6%
45−50
+21.6%
Metro Exodus 7−8
−14.3%
8−9
+14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 9
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
−11.1%
10−11
+11.1%

This is how RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) and HD 7870 XT compete in popular games:

  • HD 7870 XT is 23% faster in 1080p
  • HD 7870 XT is 13% faster in 1440p
  • HD 7870 XT is 20% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 9.03 11.58
Recency 7 January 2020 19 November 2012
Chip lithography 7 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 15 Watt 185 Watt

RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) has an age advantage of 7 years, a 300% more advanced lithography process, and 1133.3% lower power consumption.

HD 7870 XT, on the other hand, has a 28.2% higher aggregate performance score.

The Radeon HD 7870 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) is a notebook card while Radeon HD 7870 XT is a desktop 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 RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000)
AMD Radeon HD 7870 XT
Radeon HD 7870 XT

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.


3.8 1105 votes

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Questions & comments

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