Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs ATI HD 3870

Place in the ranking	996	8
Place by popularity	not in top-100	70
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.06	34.70
Power efficiency	0.93	15.56
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	RDNA 3.0 (2022−2024)
GPU code name	RV670	Navi 31
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 November 2007 (17 years ago)	3 November 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$269	$999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 7900 XTX has 57733% 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	6144
Core clock speed	777 MHz	1929 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2498 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	106 Watt	355 Watt
Texture fill rate	12.43	959.2
Floating-point processing power	0.4973 TFLOPS	61.39 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	192
TMUs	16	384
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	96

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	287 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	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1126 MHz	2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	72.06 GB/s	960.0 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 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 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	6.7
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	N/A	2.2
Vulkan	N/A	1.3

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 7900 XTX 80.60
+5497%

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 7900 XTX 31060
+5496%

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 −6200%	252 +6200%
1440p	3−4 −5600%	171 +5600%
4K	1−2 −10400%	105 +10400%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	67.25	3.96
1440p	89.67	5.84
4K	269.00	9.51

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

242

+0%

242

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	166 +0%	166 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	283 +0%	283 +0%
Battlefield 5	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	231 +0%	231 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	200−210 +0%	200−210 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	250−260 +0%	250−260 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	280−290 +0%	280−290 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	350−400 +0%	350−400 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	330 +0%	330 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	241 +0%	241 +0%
Battlefield 5	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	208 +0%	208 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	200−210 +0%	200−210 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	250−260 +0%	250−260 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	280−290 +0%	280−290 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	535 +0%	535 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	170−180 +0%	170−180 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	134 +0%	134 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	210 +0%	210 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	199 +0%	199 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	295 +0%	295 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	406 +0%	406 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	471 +0%	471 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	298 +0%	298 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	158 +0%	158 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

120−130

+0%

120−130

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	160−170 +0%	160−170 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	132 +0%	132 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	171 +0%	171 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	141 +0%	141 +0%
Far Cry 5	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Hitman 3	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	328 +0%	328 +0%
Metro Exodus	146 +0%	146 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	360 +0%	360 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	238 +0%	238 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

120−130

+0%

120−130

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Hitman 3	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	182 +0%	182 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	110 +0%	110 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	107 +0%	107 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	71 +0%	71 +0%
Far Cry 5	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	227 +0%	227 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	197 +0%	197 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	103 +0%	103 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

95−100

+0%

95−100

+0%

This is how ATI HD 3870 and RX 7900 XTX compete in popular games:

RX 7900 XTX is 6200% faster in 1080p
RX 7900 XTX is 5600% faster in 1440p
RX 7900 XTX is 10400% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

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

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.44	80.60
Recency	19 November 2007	3 November 2022
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	24 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	106 Watt	355 Watt

ATI HD 3870 has 234.9% lower power consumption.

RX 7900 XTX, on the other hand, has a 5497.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 14 years, a 4700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 1000% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX 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.