ATI Radeon HD 3870 vs FirePro W4100

Place in the ranking	698	999
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	0.04
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	Cape Verde	RV670
Market segment	Workstation	Desktop
Release date	13 August 2014 (10 years ago)	19 November 2007 (16 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$269

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 cores	512	320
Core clock speed	630 MHz	777 MHz
Number of transistors	1,500 million	666 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	106 Watt
Texture fill rate	20.16	12.43
Floating-point processing power	0.6451 TFLOPS	0.4973 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	16
TMUs	32	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).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	171 mm	241 mm
Width	1-slot	2-slot
Form factor	low profile / half length	no data
Supplementary power connectors	None	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	GDDR5	GDDR4
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	1126 MHz
Memory bandwidth	72 GB/s	72.06 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 Connectors	4x mini-DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
Dual-link DVI support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	10.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	5.1	4.1
OpenGL	4.6	3.3
OpenCL	1.2	N/A
Vulkan	1.2.131	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.

FirePro W4100 3.92
+172%

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.

FirePro W4100 1512
+172%

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	13 +225%	4−5 −225%
4K	3 +200%	1−2 −200%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

7−8
+250%

2−3

−250%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Battlefield 5	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +188%	8−9 −188%
Hitman 3	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +200%	9−10 −200%
Metro Exodus	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−11 +233%	3−4 −233%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +200%	5−6 −200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +207%	14−16 −207%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Battlefield 5	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +188%	8−9 −188%
Hitman 3	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +200%	9−10 −200%
Metro Exodus	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−11 +233%	3−4 −233%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +200%	5−6 −200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +220%	5−6 −220%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +207%	14−16 −207%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +188%	8−9 −188%
Hitman 3	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +200%	9−10 −200%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +200%	5−6 −200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +220%	5−6 −220%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +207%	14−16 −207%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−11

+233%

3−4
−233%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 +200%	2−3 −200%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3	0−1
Far Cry 5	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Hitman 3	8−9 +300%	2−3 −300%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 +200%	3−4 −200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	24−27 +200%	8−9 −200%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9
+300%

2−3

−300%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3	0−1
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3	0−1
Hitman 3	0−1	0−1
Metro Exodus	0−1	0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	2−3	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	2−3	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6
+400%

1−2

−400%

This is how FirePro W4100 and ATI HD 3870 compete in popular games:

FirePro W4100 is 225% faster in 1080p
FirePro W4100 is 200% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.92	1.44
Recency	13 August 2014	19 November 2007
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	106 Watt

FirePro W4100 has a 172.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 96.4% more advanced lithography process, and 112% lower power consumption.

The FirePro W4100 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 3870 in performance tests.

Be aware that FirePro W4100 is a workstation graphics card while Radeon HD 3870 is a desktop one.

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