ATI Radeon HD 3870 vs VII

Place in the ranking	84	989
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	25.94	0.04
Power efficiency	10.13	0.94
Architecture	GCN 5.1 (2018−2022)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	Vega 20	RV670
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	7 February 2019 (5 years ago)	19 November 2007 (16 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$699	$269

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Radeon VII has 64750% better value for money than ATI HD 3870.

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	3840	320
Core clock speed	1400 MHz	777 MHz
Boost clock speed	1750 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	13,230 million	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	7 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	295 Watt	106 Watt
Texture fill rate	420.0	12.43
Floating-point processing power	13.44 TFLOPS	0.4973 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	16
TMUs	240	16

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 2.0 x16
Length	280 mm	241 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 8-pin	1x 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 type	HBM2	GDDR4
Maximum RAM amount	16 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	4096 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	1126 MHz
Memory bandwidth	1024 GB/s	72.06 GB/s

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 HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
HDMI	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	6.7	4.1
OpenGL	4.6	3.3
OpenCL	2.1	N/A
Vulkan	1.3	N/A

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.

Radeon VII 43.17
+2898%

ATI HD 3870 1.44

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.

Radeon VII 16659
+2902%

ATI HD 3870 555

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 HD	122 +2950%	4−5 −2950%
1440p	74 +3600%	2−3 −3600%
4K	59 +5800%	1−2 −5800%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	5.73	67.25
1440p	9.45	134.50
4K	11.85	269.00

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

75−80
+3750%

2−3

−3750%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	76 +3700%	2−3 −3700%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	99 +3200%	3−4 −3200%
Battlefield 5	160 +3100%	5−6 −3100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	85−90 +4250%	2−3 −4250%
Cyberpunk 2077	75−80 +3750%	2−3 −3750%
Far Cry 5	116 +3767%	3−4 −3767%
Far Cry New Dawn	113 +3667%	3−4 −3667%
Forza Horizon 4	227 +3143%	7−8 −3143%
Hitman 3	81 +3950%	2−3 −3950%
Horizon Zero Dawn	170−180 +3420%	5−6 −3420%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +3250%	4−5 −3250%
Red Dead Redemption 2	126 +3050%	4−5 −3050%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	196 +3167%	6−7 −3167%
Watch Dogs: Legion	214 +2957%	7−8 −2957%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	157 +3040%	5−6 −3040%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	82 +4000%	2−3 −4000%
Battlefield 5	150 +2900%	5−6 −2900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	85−90 +4250%	2−3 −4250%
Cyberpunk 2077	75−80 +3750%	2−3 −3750%
Far Cry 5	90 +2900%	3−4 −2900%
Far Cry New Dawn	102 +3300%	3−4 −3300%
Forza Horizon 4	227 +3143%	7−8 −3143%
Hitman 3	79 +3850%	2−3 −3850%
Horizon Zero Dawn	170−180 +3420%	5−6 −3420%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +3250%	4−5 −3250%
Red Dead Redemption 2	95−100 +3167%	3−4 −3167%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	97 +3133%	3−4 −3133%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	85−90 +4350%	2−3 −4350%
Watch Dogs: Legion	211 +2914%	7−8 −2914%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	63 +3050%	2−3 −3050%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	72 +3500%	2−3 −3500%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	85−90 +4250%	2−3 −4250%
Cyberpunk 2077	75−80 +3750%	2−3 −3750%
Far Cry 5	71 +3450%	2−3 −3450%
Forza Horizon 4	130 +3150%	4−5 −3150%
Hitman 3	75 +3650%	2−3 −3650%
Horizon Zero Dawn	95 +3067%	3−4 −3067%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	84 +4100%	2−3 −4100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	75 +3650%	2−3 −3650%
Watch Dogs: Legion	63 +3050%	2−3 −3050%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

119

+3867%

3−4
−3867%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 +4150%	2−3 −4150%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 +3200%	2−3 −3200%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50 +4600%	1−2 −4600%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	57 +5600%	1−2 −5600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 +5000%	1−2 −5000%
Cyberpunk 2077	35−40 +3500%	1−2 −3500%
Far Cry 5	50−55 +4900%	1−2 −4900%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +3286%	7−8 −3286%
Hitman 3	66 +3200%	2−3 −3200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80 +3900%	2−3 −3900%
Metro Exodus	83 +4050%	2−3 −4050%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	61 +2950%	2−3 −2950%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	65−70 +3150%	2−3 −3150%
Watch Dogs: Legion	200 +3233%	6−7 −3233%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

86
+4200%

2−3

−4200%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	58 +5700%	1−2 −5700%
Far Cry New Dawn	46 +4500%	1−2 −4500%
Hitman 3	46 +4500%	1−2 −4500%
Horizon Zero Dawn	190−200 +3117%	6−7 −3117%
Metro Exodus	55−60 +5600%	1−2 −5600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	54 +5300%	1−2 −5300%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	44 +4300%	1−2 −4300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	35 +3400%	1−2 −3400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18	0−1
Far Cry 5	31 +3000%	1−2 −3000%
Forza Horizon 4	77 +3750%	2−3 −3750%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	33 +3200%	1−2 −3200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	29	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

43
+4200%

1−2

−4200%

This is how Radeon VII and ATI HD 3870 compete in popular games:

Radeon VII is 2950% faster in 1080p
Radeon VII is 3600% faster in 1440p
Radeon VII is 5800% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	43.17	1.44
Recency	7 February 2019	19 November 2007
Maximum RAM amount	16 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	7 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	295 Watt	106 Watt

Radeon VII has a 2897.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 685.7% more advanced lithography process.

ATI HD 3870, on the other hand, has 178.3% lower power consumption.

The Radeon VII is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 3870 in performance tests.

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