Radeon 780M vs HD 6870

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6870 with Radeon 780M, including specs and performance data.

HD 6870
2010
1 GB GDDR5, 151 Watt
5.75

780M outperforms HD 6870 by a whopping 218% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking602305
Place by popularitynot in top-10048
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.99no data
Power efficiency2.6283.89
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)RDNA 3.0 (2022−2024)
GPU code nameBartsHawx Point
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date21 October 2010 (14 years ago)6 December 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$239 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 cores1120768
Core clock speedno data800 MHz
Boost clock speed900 MHz2700 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million25,390 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)151 Watt15 Watt
Texture fill rate50.40129.6
Floating-point processing power2.016 TFLOPS8.294 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs5648
Ray Tracing Coresno data12

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).

Bus supportPCIe 2.0 x16no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x8
Length220 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinNone

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 typeGDDR5System Shared
Maximum RAM amount1 GBSystem Shared
Memory bus width256 BitSystem Shared
Memory clock speed1050 MHzSystem Shared
Memory bandwidth134.4 GB/sno data
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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortPortable Device Dependent
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.8
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.22.1
Vulkan-1.3

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.

HD 6870 5.75
Radeon 780M 18.28
+218%

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.

HD 6870 2209
Radeon 780M 7029
+218%

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.

HD 6870 4218
Radeon 780M 12785
+203%

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.

HD 6870 17773
Radeon 780M 41622
+134%

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.

HD 6870 3141
Radeon 780M 7987
+154%

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

HD 6870 26437
Radeon 780M 48112
+82%

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:

900p61
−211%
190−200
+211%
Full HD63
+80%
35
−80%
1200p39
−208%
120−130
+208%
1440p5−6
−240%
17
+240%
4K4−5
−250%
14
+250%

Cost per frame, $

1080p3.79no data
1440p47.80no data
4K59.75no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2 12−14
−146%
32
+146%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−255%
39
+255%
Elden Ring 14−16
−147%
37
+147%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
−228%
55−60
+228%
Counter-Strike 2 12−14
−100%
26
+100%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−36.4%
15
+36.4%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−171%
65
+171%
Metro Exodus 14−16
−214%
44
+214%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
−153%
40−45
+153%
Valorant 16−18
−363%
70−75
+363%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
−228%
55−60
+228%
Counter-Strike 2 12−14
−92.3%
25
+92.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−9.1%
12
+9.1%
Dota 2 18−20
−52.6%
29
+52.6%
Elden Ring 14−16
−180%
42
+180%
Far Cry 5 27−30
−18.5%
32
+18.5%
Fortnite 30−35
−188%
95−100
+188%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−125%
54
+125%
Grand Theft Auto V 18−20
−137%
45
+137%
Metro Exodus 14−16
−129%
32
+129%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
−163%
120−130
+163%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
−153%
40−45
+153%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
−217%
55−60
+217%
Valorant 16−18
−363%
70−75
+363%
World of Tanks 189
−16.4%
220−230
+16.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
−228%
55−60
+228%
Counter-Strike 2 12−14
−146%
30−35
+146%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−9.1%
12
+9.1%
Dota 2 18−20
−242%
65−70
+242%
Far Cry 5 27−30
−133%
60−65
+133%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−91.7%
46
+91.7%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
−163%
120−130
+163%
Valorant 16−18
−363%
70−75
+363%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2 5−6
−260%
18
+260%
Elden Ring 7−8
−329%
30−33
+329%
Grand Theft Auto V 6−7
−217%
19
+217%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 35−40
−361%
160−170
+361%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
−300%
16−18
+300%
World of Tanks 40−45
−205%
120−130
+205%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 9−10
−311%
35−40
+311%
Counter-Strike 2 9−10
−66.7%
14−16
+66.7%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
−250%
14−16
+250%
Far Cry 5 12−14
−300%
45−50
+300%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
−256%
32
+256%
Metro Exodus 6−7
−583%
40−45
+583%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 7−8
−186%
20
+186%
Valorant 14−16
−213%
45−50
+213%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2 16−18
−23.5%
21
+23.5%
Elden Ring 3−4
−333%
12−14
+333%
Grand Theft Auto V 16−18
−23.5%
21
+23.5%
Metro Exodus 1−2
−1200%
12−14
+1200%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−244%
55−60
+244%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
−200%
12−14
+200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
−23.5%
21
+23.5%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 5−6
−260%
18−20
+260%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
−150%
5−6
+150%
Dota 2 16−18
−82.4%
30−35
+82.4%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−283%
21−24
+283%
Fortnite 5−6
−320%
21−24
+320%
Forza Horizon 4 5−6
−240%
17
+240%
Valorant 5−6
−320%
21−24
+320%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Counter-Strike 2 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%

This is how HD 6870 and Radeon 780M compete in popular games:

  • Radeon 780M is 211% faster in 900p
  • HD 6870 is 80% faster in 1080p
  • Radeon 780M is 208% faster in 1200p
  • Radeon 780M is 240% faster in 1440p
  • Radeon 780M is 250% faster in 4K

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

  • in Metro Exodus, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the Radeon 780M is 1200% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Radeon 780M is ahead in 61 test (97%)
  • there's a draw in 2 tests (3%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 5.75 18.28
Recency 21 October 2010 6 December 2023
Chip lithography 40 nm 4 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 151 Watt 15 Watt

Radeon 780M has a 217.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 13 years, a 900% more advanced lithography process, and 906.7% lower power consumption.

The Radeon 780M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6870 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6870 is a desktop card while Radeon 780M is a notebook one.


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.


AMD Radeon HD 6870
Radeon HD 6870
AMD Radeon 780M
Radeon 780M

Other comparisons

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.


3.8 370 votes

Rate Radeon HD 6870 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.2 1629 votes

Rate Radeon 780M 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.