GeForce RTX 4090 vs ATI Radeon HD 5850

Place in the ranking	614	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.59	18.80
Power efficiency	2.37	15.45
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	Cypress	AD102
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	30 September 2009 (15 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	$1,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 4090 has 3086% better value for money than ATI HD 5850.

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	1440	16384
Core clock speed	725 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	2,154 million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	151 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	52.20	1,290
Floating-point processing power	2.088 TFLOPS	82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	176
TMUs	72	512
Tensor Cores	no data	512
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	128

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	304 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 16-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	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	128.0 GB/s	1.01 TB/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 HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.8
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	-	8.9

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 5850 5.15

RTX 4090 100.00
+1842%

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 5850 1988

RTX 4090 38589
+1841%

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.

ATI HD 5850 3401

RTX 4090 104598
+2976%

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.

ATI HD 5850 13267

RTX 4090 137609
+937%

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:

900p	59 −1764%	1100−1150 +1764%
Full HD	55 −387%	268 +387%
1440p	10−12 −1960%	206 +1960%
4K	7−8 −1971%	145 +1971%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

9−10

−2400%

225
+2400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −1579%	235 +1579%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −5640%	287 +5640%
Battlefield 5	12−14 −1777%	240−250 +1777%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −991%	120−130 +991%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −2367%	222 +2367%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −973%	110−120 +973%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1336%	200−210 +1336%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −782%	290−300 +782%
Hitman 3	10−12 −1073%	120−130 +1073%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −967%	350−400 +967%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −1192%	150−160 +1192%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −786%	120−130 +786%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −2467%	450−500 +2467%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 −228%	150−160 +228%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −1350%	200−210 +1350%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −4860%	248 +4860%
Battlefield 5	12−14 −1777%	240−250 +1777%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −991%	120−130 +991%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −2278%	214 +2278%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −973%	110−120 +973%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1336%	200−210 +1336%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −782%	290−300 +782%
Hitman 3	10−12 −1073%	120−130 +1073%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −967%	350−400 +967%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −1192%	150−160 +1192%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −786%	120−130 +786%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −2944%	548 +2944%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −1239%	240−250 +1239%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 −228%	150−160 +228%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −1179%	179 +1179%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −4300%	220 +4300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −991%	120−130 +991%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −2233%	210 +2233%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −973%	110−120 +973%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −782%	290−300 +782%
Hitman 3	10−12 −1073%	120−130 +1073%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −1094%	394 +1094%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −2906%	541 +2906%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −1594%	305 +1594%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 −226%	153 +226%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

−786%

120−130
+786%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 −1560%	160−170 +1560%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 −1300%	110−120 +1300%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −3000%	155 +3000%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	183
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1950%	80−85 +1950%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −7600%	154 +7600%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −1300%	80−85 +1300%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −2158%	270−280 +2158%
Hitman 3	9−10 −1433%	130−140 +1433%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −3133%	388 +3133%
Metro Exodus	3−4 −4967%	152 +4967%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 −6600%	268 +6600%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −650%	240−250 +650%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

−1333%

120−130
+1333%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 −2100%	85−90 +2100%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −2200%	65−70 +2200%
Hitman 3	1−2 −8200%	80−85 +8200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −1213%	105 +1213%
Metro Exodus	2−3 −7000%	140−150 +7000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −28000%	281 +28000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −3900%	120 +3900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −5900%	120 +5900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −2500%	50−55 +2500%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	80
Far Cry 5	3−4 −1567%	50−55 +1567%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 −6300%	250−260 +6300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −11600%	117 +11600%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

−1750%

110−120
+1750%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

504

+0%

504

+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

282

+0%

282

+0%

This is how ATI HD 5850 and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 1764% faster in 900p
RTX 4090 is 387% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 1960% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 1971% faster in 4K

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 4090 is 28000% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 4090 is ahead in 68 tests (97%)
there's a draw in 2 tests (3%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.15	100.00
Recency	30 September 2009	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	151 Watt	450 Watt

ATI HD 5850 has 198% lower power consumption.

RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 1841.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 5850 in performance tests.

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