AMD Radeon HD 7870: specs and benchmarks
Aggregated performance score
Summary
AMD started Radeon HD 7870 sales 5 March 2012 at a recommended price of $412.83 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a GCN architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 2 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4.8 GHz are supplied, and together with 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s.
Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 241 mm. Two 6-pin power connectors are required, and power consumption is at 175 Watt.
It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 11.97% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.
General info
Some basic facts about Radeon HD 7870: architecture, market segment, release date etc.
| Place in performance ranking | 372 | |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | |
| Value for money | 2.73 | |
| Architecture | GCN (2011−2017) | |
| GPU code name | Pitcairn XT | |
| Market segment | Desktop | |
| Release date | 5 March 2012 (12 years old) | |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $412.83 | |
| Current price | $200 (0.5x MSRP) | of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB) |
Value for money
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
Technical specs
Radeon HD 7870's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon HD 7870's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 1280 | of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT) |
| Core clock speed | 1000 MHz | of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT) |
| Number of transistors | 2800 Million | of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile) |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080) |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 175 Watt | of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem) |
| Texture fill rate | 80.00 | of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB) |
Size and compatibility
This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon HD 7870 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | |
| Length | 241 mm | |
| Width | 2-slot | |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin |
Memory
Parameters of memory installed on Radeon HD 7870: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.
| Memory type | GDDR5 | |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | of 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X) |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | of 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB) |
| Memory clock speed | 4800 MHz | of 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER) |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | of 3276 (Aldebaran) |
| Shared memory | - |
Video outputs and ports
Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon HD 7870. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.
| Display Connectors | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | |
| Eyefinity | + | |
| HDMI | + |
API support
APIs supported by Radeon HD 7870, sometimes including their particular versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 |
Benchmark performance
Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon HD 7870. 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.
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%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
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.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
Unigine Heaven 4.0
This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.
Benchmark coverage: 1%
Send your test results of Radeon HD 7870.
Gaming performance
Let's see how good Radeon HD 7870 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.
Average FPS across all PC games
Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:
| 900p | 84 | |
| Full HD | 66 |
Performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 |
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 24−27 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | |
| Battlefield 5 | 40−45 | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 30−35 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 30−35 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 30−35 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 40−45 | |
| Hitman 3 | 30−35 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 24−27 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 20−22 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 24−27 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 21−24 |
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 24−27 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | |
| Battlefield 5 | 40−45 | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 30−35 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 30−35 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 30−35 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 40−45 | |
| Hitman 3 | 30−35 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 24−27 | |
| Metro Exodus | 18−20 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 20−22 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 24−27 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 36 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 21−24 |
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 24−27 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | |
| Battlefield 5 | 40−45 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 30−35 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 30−35 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 40−45 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 20 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 21−24 |
1440p
High Preset
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 16−18 | |
| Hitman 3 | 18−20 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20 | |
| Metro Exodus | 10−11 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 9−10 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 14−16 |
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 12−14 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 8−9 | |
| Battlefield 5 | 21−24 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 6−7 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 18−20 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 21−24 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 21−24 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 12−14 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 6−7 |
4K
High Preset
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 8−9 | |
| Hitman 3 | 10−12 | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 9−10 | |
| Metro Exodus | 5−6 | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 6−7 | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 7−8 | |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10−11 |
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 7−8 | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 5−6 | |
| Battlefield 5 | 10−12 | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2−3 | |
| Far Cry 5 | 10−11 | |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 12−14 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 16−18 | |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 4−5 |
Relative perfomance
Radeon HD 7870's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.
NVIDIA equivalent
According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon HD 7870 is GeForce GTX 580, which is slower by 2% and lower by 2 positions in our ranking.
Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon HD 7870:
Similar GPUs
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Recommended processors
These processors are most commonly used with Radeon HD 7870 according to our statistics.
