NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 vs AMD Radeon HD 6870

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Combined performance score

HD 6870
5.73

GeForce GTX 460 outperforms Radeon HD 6870 by 2% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking560557
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money0.360.96
ArchitectureTerascale 2 (2009−2015)Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code nameRV940 BartsGF104
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date22 October 2010 (13 years old)12 July 2010 (13 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$239 $199
Current price$332 (1.4x MSRP)$128 (0.6x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 460 has 167% better value for money than HD 6870.

Technical specs

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 cores1120336
Core clock speedno data675 MHz
Boost clock speed900 MHzno data
Number of transistors1,700 million1,950 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)151 Watt160 Watt
Texture fill rate50.4037.80
Floating-point performance2,016.0 gflops907.2 gflops

Size and 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).

Bus supportPCIe 2.0 x1616x PCI-E 2.0
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length220 mm8.25"(210 mm) (21 cm)
Heightno data4.376"(111 mm) (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pin6-pin & 6-pin
SLI optionsno data+

Memory

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 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1050 MHz3600 MHz
Memory bandwidth134.4 GB/s86.4 GB/s
Shared memory-no data

Video outputs and ports

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, 2x mini-DisplayPortTwo Dual Link DVI, Mini HDMI
Multi monitor supportno data+
Eyefinity1no data
HDMI++
HDCPno data+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536
DisplayPort support-no data
Audio input for HDMIno dataInternal

Technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration-no data
CrossFire1no data
Enduro-no data
HD3D-no data
PowerTune-no data
TrueAudio-no data
ZeroCore-no data

API support

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 (11_0)
Shader Model5.05.1
OpenGL4.44.1
OpenCL1.21.1
Vulkanno dataN/A
Mantle-no data
CUDAno data+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

HD 6870 5.73
GTX 460 5.83
+1.7%

GeForce GTX 460 outperforms Radeon HD 6870 by 2% in our combined benchmark results.


Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

HD 6870 2219
GTX 460 2259
+1.8%

GeForce GTX 460 outperforms Radeon HD 6870 by 2% in Passmark.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 6870 3141
+22.2%
GTX 460 2570

Radeon HD 6870 outperforms GeForce GTX 460 by 22% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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:

900p57
+3.6%
55−60
−3.6%
Full HD63
+5%
60−65
−5%
1200p39
+11.4%
35−40
−11.4%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Battlefield 5 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
+5.6%
18−20
−5.6%
Hitman 3 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Battlefield 5 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
+5.6%
18−20
−5.6%
Hitman 3 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Metro Exodus 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+10%
10−11
−10%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Battlefield 5 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
+8.3%
12−14
−8.3%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
+5.6%
18−20
−5.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Hitman 3 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Metro Exodus 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 0−1 0−1
Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry 5 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Hitman 3 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Metro Exodus 0−1 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Battlefield 5 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 5−6
+0%
5−6
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%

This is how HD 6870 and GTX 460 compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • HD 6870 is 3.6% faster than GTX 460

1080p resolution:

  • HD 6870 is 5% faster than GTX 460

1200p resolution:

  • HD 6870 is 11.4% faster than GTX 460

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 5.73 5.83
Recency 22 October 2010 12 July 2010
Cost $239 $199
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 160 Watt

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6870 and GeForce GTX 460. The differences in performance seem too small.


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

User ratings

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


AMD Radeon HD 6870
Radeon HD 6870
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
GeForce GTX 460

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3.9 285 votes

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Questions and comments

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