Radeon RX 6800 XT vs ATI HD 3870

Place in the ranking	991	28
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.04	50.48
Power efficiency	0.94	14.98
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	RV670	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 November 2007 (16 years ago)	28 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$269	$649

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6800 XT has 126100% 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	320	4608
Core clock speed	777 MHz	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2250 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	106 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	12.43	648.0
Floating-point processing power	0.4973 TFLOPS	20.74 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	128
TMUs	16	288
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	72

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 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	241 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	2x 8-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	GDDR4	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	16 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1126 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	72.06 GB/s	512.0 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 Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	4.1	6.5
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	N/A	2.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.2

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.

ATI HD 3870 1.44

RX 6800 XT 64.92
+4408%

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.

ATI HD 3870 555

RX 6800 XT 25045
+4413%

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	4−5 −5000%	204 +5000%
1440p	3−4 −4700%	144 +4700%
4K	2−3 −4550%	93 +4550%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	67.25	3.18
1440p	89.67	4.51
4K	134.50	6.98

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

120−130

+0%

120−130

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	158 +0%	158 +0%
Battlefield 5	200−210 +0%	200−210 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Hitman 3	132 +0%	132 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	122 +0%	122 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	260−270 +0%	260−270 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	309 +0%	309 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	135 +0%	135 +0%
Battlefield 5	200−210 +0%	200−210 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Hitman 3	136 +0%	136 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	355 +0%	355 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	309 +0%	309 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	118 +0%	118 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Hitman 3	122 +0%	122 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	279 +0%	279 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	302 +0%	302 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	160 +0%	160 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	112 +0%	112 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

120

+0%

120

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	98 +0%	98 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Far Cry 5	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Hitman 3	114 +0%	114 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	215 +0%	215 +0%
Metro Exodus	112 +0%	112 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	222 +0%	222 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	314 +0%	314 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

116

+0%

116

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	60−65 +0%	60−65 +0%
Hitman 3	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	126 +0%	126 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	110 +0%	110 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65 +0%	65 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Far Cry 5	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	133 +0%	133 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	49 +0%	49 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

This is how ATI HD 3870 and RX 6800 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6800 XT is 5000% faster in 1080p
RX 6800 XT is 4700% faster in 1440p
RX 6800 XT is 4550% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.44	64.92
Recency	19 November 2007	28 October 2020
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	16 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	106 Watt	300 Watt

ATI HD 3870 has 183% lower power consumption.

RX 6800 XT, on the other hand, has a 4408.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 685.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT 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.