GeForce GTX 260 216 Rev. 2 vs ATI Radeon HD 5870

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking594not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.55no data
Power efficiency2.12no data
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)
GPU code nameCypressGT200B
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date23 September 2009 (15 years ago)27 November 2008 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$399 $299

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 cores1600216
Core clock speed850 MHz576 MHz
Number of transistors2,154 million1,400 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)188 Watt171 Watt
Texture fill rate68.0041.47
Floating-point processing power2.72 TFLOPS0.5365 TFLOPS
ROPs3228
TMUs8072

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).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length282 mm267 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pin2x 6-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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount1 GB896 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit448 Bit
Memory clock speed1200 MHz999 MHz
Memory bandwidth153.6 GB/s111.9 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort2x DVI, 1x S-Video
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model5.04.0
OpenGL4.43.3
OpenCL1.21.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA-1.3

Pros & cons summary


Recency 23 September 2009 27 November 2008
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 896 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 188 Watt 171 Watt

ATI HD 5870 has an age advantage of 9 months, a 14.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 37.5% more advanced lithography process.

GTX 260 216 Rev. 2, on the other hand, has 9.9% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 5870 and GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Rev. 2. We've got no test results to judge.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


ATI Radeon HD 5870
Radeon HD 5870
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Rev. 2
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Rev. 2

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.


3.9 227 votes

Rate Radeon HD 5870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.8 11 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Rev. 2 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.