ATI Radeon 9800 SE vs ATI HD 4870

Place in the ranking	718	1469
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.31	no data
Power efficiency	1.66	no data
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	Rage 8 (2002−2007)
GPU code name	RV770	R350
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	25 June 2008 (16 years ago)	1 March 2003 (21 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	no data

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	800	no data
Core clock speed	750 MHz	378 MHz
Number of transistors	956 million	117 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	150 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	no data
Texture fill rate	30.00	1.512
Floating-point processing power	1.2 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	16	4
TMUs	40	4

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	AGP 8x
Length	250 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	Floppy

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	DDR
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	128 MB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	297 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	19.01 GB/s

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 DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	9.0 (9_0)
Shader Model	4.1	no data
OpenGL	3.3	2.0
OpenCL	1.1	N/A
Vulkan	N/A	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.

ATI HD 4870 3.56
+5833%

ATI 9800 SE 0.06

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 4870 1375
+5878%

ATI 9800 SE 23

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.56	0.06
Recency	25 June 2008	1 March 2003
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	128 MB
Chip lithography	55 nm	150 nm

ATI HD 4870 has a 5833.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 172.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon HD 4870 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 9800 SE in performance tests.

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