Radeon HD 5950 vs HD 5970

#ad 
Buy on Amazon
VS

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking556not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.82no data
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameHemlockHemlock
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date18 November 2009 (14 years ago)no data
Launch price (MSRP)$699 no data
Current price$69 (0.1x MSRP)$37

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores16001440
Core clock speed725 MHz725 MHz
Number of transistors2,154 million2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)294 Watt302 Watt
Texture fill rate58.0052.20
Floating-point performance2x 2,320.0 gflopsno data

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
Length305 mm280 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin1x 6-pin + 1x 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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed4000 MHz4 GB/s
Memory bandwidth128.0 GB/s128.0 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 mini-DisplayPort2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, 1x DisplayPort 1.1
HDMIno data+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model5.05.0
OpenGL4.44.4
OpenCL1.21.2
VulkanN/AN/A

Pros & cons summary


Power consumption (TDP) 294 Watt 302 Watt

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon HD 5950. 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 5970
Radeon HD 5970
ATI Radeon HD 5950
Radeon HD 5950

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.


3.5 41 vote

Rate Radeon HD 5970 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.2 22 votes

Rate Radeon HD 5950 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.