Radeon HD 7870 vs GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile with Radeon HD 7870, including specs and performance data.

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile
2016
2x 8 GB GDDR5
36.21
+251%

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile outperforms HD 7870 by a whopping 251% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking98419
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data2.58
Power efficiencyno data4.69
ArchitecturePascal (2016−2021)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code namePascal GP104 SLIPitcairn
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date16 August 2016 (8 years ago)5 March 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$349

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

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 cores40961280
Core clock speed1443 MHz1000 MHz
Boost clock speed1645 MHzno data
Number of transistors14400 Million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology16 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data175 Watt
Texture fill rateno data80.00
Floating-point processing powerno data2.56 TFLOPS
ROPsno data32
TMUsno data80

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).

Laptop sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data241 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data2x 6-pin
SLI options+-

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 amount2x 8 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed8000 MHz1200 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data153.6 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 Connectorsno data1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity-+
HDMI-+
G-SYNC support+-

Supported technologies

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

VR Ready+no data

API and SDK 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
CUDA+-

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.

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile 36.21
+251%
HD 7870 10.32

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile 42910
+593%
HD 7870 6194

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile 56476
+165%
HD 7870 21348

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:

900p290−300
+245%
84
−245%
Full HD138
+109%
66
−109%
4K78
+271%
21−24
−271%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data5.29
4Kno data16.62

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 110−120
+321%
27−30
−321%
Counter-Strike 2 220−230
+261%
60−65
−261%
Cyberpunk 2077 90−95
+296%
21−24
−296%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 110−120
+321%
27−30
−321%
Battlefield 5 130−140
+171%
45−50
−171%
Counter-Strike 2 220−230
+261%
60−65
−261%
Cyberpunk 2077 90−95
+296%
21−24
−296%
Far Cry 5 120−130
+221%
35−40
−221%
Fortnite 160−170
+156%
65−70
−156%
Forza Horizon 4 150−160
+213%
45−50
−213%
Forza Horizon 5 120−130
+246%
35−40
−246%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 150−160
+283%
40−45
−283%
Valorant 220−230
+125%
100−110
−125%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 110−120
+321%
27−30
−321%
Battlefield 5 130−140
+171%
45−50
−171%
Counter-Strike 2 220−230
+261%
60−65
−261%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 270−280
+70.6%
160−170
−70.6%
Cyberpunk 2077 90−95
+296%
21−24
−296%
Dota 2 140−150
+87%
75−80
−87%
Far Cry 5 120−130
+221%
35−40
−221%
Fortnite 160−170
+156%
65−70
−156%
Forza Horizon 4 150−160
+213%
45−50
−213%
Forza Horizon 5 120−130
+246%
35−40
−246%
Grand Theft Auto V 120−130
+200%
40−45
−200%
Metro Exodus 90−95
+304%
21−24
−304%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 102
+155%
40−45
−155%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 168
+367%
36
−367%
Valorant 220−230
+125%
100−110
−125%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 130−140
+171%
45−50
−171%
Cyberpunk 2077 90−95
+296%
21−24
−296%
Dota 2 140−150
+87%
75−80
−87%
Far Cry 5 120−130
+221%
35−40
−221%
Forza Horizon 4 150−160
+213%
45−50
−213%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 93
+133%
40−45
−133%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 100
+400%
20
−400%
Valorant 220−230
+125%
100−110
−125%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 160−170
+156%
65−70
−156%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 100−110
+381%
21−24
−381%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 260−270
+216%
85−90
−216%
Grand Theft Auto V 75−80
+365%
16−18
−365%
Metro Exodus 55−60
+338%
12−14
−338%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 170−180
+136%
70−75
−136%
Valorant 250−260
+111%
120−130
−111%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 95−100
+241%
27−30
−241%
Cyberpunk 2077 45−50
+360%
10−11
−360%
Far Cry 5 90−95
+292%
24−27
−292%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+315%
27−30
−315%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 70−75
+311%
18−20
−311%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 100−110
+329%
24−27
−329%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 30−35
+256%
9−10
−256%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+667%
6−7
−667%
Grand Theft Auto V 85−90
+286%
21−24
−286%
Metro Exodus 35−40
+414%
7−8
−414%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 72
+414%
14−16
−414%
Valorant 230−240
+295%
60−65
−295%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 60−65
+313%
14−16
−313%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+667%
6−7
−667%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+425%
4−5
−425%
Dota 2 110−120
+171%
40−45
−171%
Far Cry 5 50−55
+333%
12−14
−333%
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
+289%
18−20
−289%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 37
+236%
10−12
−236%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 50−55
+364%
10−12
−364%

This is how GTX 1070 SLI Mobile and HD 7870 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is 245% faster in 900p
  • GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is 109% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is 271% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is 667% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, GTX 1070 SLI Mobile surpassed HD 7870 in all 63 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 36.21 10.32
Recency 16 August 2016 5 March 2012
Chip lithography 16 nm 28 nm

GTX 1070 SLI Mobile has a 250.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, and a 75% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7870 in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile is a notebook card while Radeon HD 7870 is a desktop one.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile
GeForce GTX 1070 SLI
AMD Radeon HD 7870
Radeon HD 7870

Other comparisons

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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