ATI Radeon HD 5870 vs GeForce GTX 980 Ti

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Radeon HD 5870, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX 980 Ti
2015
6 GB GDDR5, 250 Watt
35.82
+523%

GTX 980 Ti outperforms ATI HD 5870 by a whopping 523% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking138598
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation14.340.60
Power efficiency9.822.10
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameGM200Cypress
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date2 June 2015 (9 years ago)23 September 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$649 $399

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 980 Ti has 2290% better value for money than ATI HD 5870.

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 cores28161600
Core clock speed1000 MHz850 MHz
Boost clock speed1075 MHzno data
Number of transistors8,000 million2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)250 Watt188 Watt
Texture fill rate189.468.00
Floating-point processing power6.06 TFLOPS2.72 TFLOPS
ROPs9632
TMUs17680

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 supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length267 mm282 mm
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)600 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin2x 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 amount6 GB1 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth336.5 GB/s153.6 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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.22x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
HDMI++
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model6.45.0
OpenGL4.54.4
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.1.126N/A
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. 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.

GTX 980 Ti 35.82
+523%
ATI HD 5870 5.75

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.

GTX 980 Ti 13804
+523%
ATI HD 5870 2215

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.

GTX 980 Ti 16961
+570%
ATI HD 5870 2530

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 HD101
+531%
16−18
−531%
1440p48
+586%
7−8
−586%
4K52
+550%
8−9
−550%

Cost per frame, $

1080p6.4324.94
1440p13.5257.00
4K12.4849.88

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 75−80
+533%
12−14
−533%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Battlefield 5 110−120
+544%
18−20
−544%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 70−75
+630%
10−11
−630%
Cyberpunk 2077 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Far Cry 5 75−80
+558%
12−14
−558%
Far Cry New Dawn 90−95
+543%
14−16
−543%
Forza Horizon 4 180−190
+574%
27−30
−574%
Hitman 3 75−80
+533%
12−14
−533%
Horizon Zero Dawn 150−160
+533%
24−27
−533%
Metro Exodus 110−120
+550%
18−20
−550%
Red Dead Redemption 2 85−90
+617%
12−14
−617%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 120−130
+617%
18−20
−617%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+583%
18−20
−583%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 75−80
+533%
12−14
−533%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Battlefield 5 47
+571%
7−8
−571%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 70−75
+630%
10−11
−630%
Cyberpunk 2077 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Far Cry 5 75−80
+558%
12−14
−558%
Far Cry New Dawn 36
+620%
5−6
−620%
Forza Horizon 4 180−190
+574%
27−30
−574%
Hitman 3 75−80
+533%
12−14
−533%
Horizon Zero Dawn 150−160
+533%
24−27
−533%
Metro Exodus 49
+600%
7−8
−600%
Red Dead Redemption 2 85−90
+617%
12−14
−617%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 120−130
+617%
18−20
−617%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 155
+546%
24−27
−546%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+583%
18−20
−583%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 46
+557%
7−8
−557%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 70−75
+630%
10−11
−630%
Cyberpunk 2077 60−65
+589%
9−10
−589%
Far Cry 5 75−80
+558%
12−14
−558%
Forza Horizon 4 72
+620%
10−11
−620%
Hitman 3 75−80
+533%
12−14
−533%
Horizon Zero Dawn 150−160
+533%
24−27
−533%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 120−130
+617%
18−20
−617%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 59
+556%
9−10
−556%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+583%
18−20
−583%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 85−90
+617%
12−14
−617%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 65−70
+580%
10−11
−580%
Far Cry New Dawn 55−60
+588%
8−9
−588%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 35−40
+533%
6−7
−533%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 35−40
+550%
6−7
−550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
+600%
6−7
−600%
Cyberpunk 2077 27−30
+575%
4−5
−575%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+583%
6−7
−583%
Forza Horizon 4 200−210
+580%
30−33
−580%
Hitman 3 45−50
+543%
7−8
−543%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+542%
12−14
−542%
Metro Exodus 65−70
+570%
10−11
−570%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 85−90
+608%
12−14
−608%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 50−55
+525%
8−9
−525%
Watch Dogs: Legion 180−190
+574%
27−30
−574%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+578%
9−10
−578%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 30
+650%
4−5
−650%
Far Cry New Dawn 29
+625%
4−5
−625%
Hitman 3 27−30
+625%
4−5
−625%
Horizon Zero Dawn 170−180
+533%
27−30
−533%
Metro Exodus 35
+600%
5−6
−600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 44
+529%
7−8
−529%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18
+800%
2−3
−800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
+633%
3−4
−633%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
+633%
3−4
−633%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+600%
3−4
−600%
Forza Horizon 4 42
+600%
6−7
−600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+586%
7−8
−586%
Watch Dogs: Legion 18−20
+800%
2−3
−800%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+675%
4−5
−675%

This is how GTX 980 Ti and ATI HD 5870 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 980 Ti is 531% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 980 Ti is 586% faster in 1440p
  • GTX 980 Ti is 550% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 35.82 5.75
Recency 2 June 2015 23 September 2009
Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 188 Watt

GTX 980 Ti has a 523% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

ATI HD 5870, on the other hand, has 33% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 980 Ti is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 5870 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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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
GeForce GTX 980 Ti
ATI Radeon HD 5870
Radeon HD 5870

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 1563 votes

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Questions & comments

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