GeForce RTX 3070 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Place in the ranking	414	42
Place by popularity	not in top-100	43
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	3.61	58.64
Power efficiency	4.29	18.06
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Tahiti	GA104
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 November 2012 (12 years ago)	1 September 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$270	$499

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 3070 has 1524% better value for money than HD 7870 XT.

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 cores	1536	5888
Core clock speed	925 MHz	1500 MHz
Boost clock speed	975 MHz	1725 MHz
Number of transistors	4,313 million	17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	185 Watt	220 Watt
Texture fill rate	93.60	317.4
Floating-point processing power	2.995 TFLOPS	20.31 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	96
TMUs	96	184
Tensor Cores	no data	184
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	46

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).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	267 mm	242 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 12-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 type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1500 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	192.0 GB/s	448.0 GB/s
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 Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2
CUDA	-	8.5

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 7870 XT 11.60

RTX 3070 57.99
+400%

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 7870 XT 4469

RTX 3070 22346
+400%

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 7870 XT 6390

RTX 3070 31020
+385%

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:

Full HD	27−30 −452%	149 +452%
1440p	18−20 −450%	99 +450%
4K	12−14 −408%	61 +408%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	10.00	3.35
1440p	15.00	5.04
4K	22.50	8.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

147

+0%

147

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	125 +0%	125 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	100 +0%	100 +0%
Battlefield 5	180−190 +0%	180−190 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	139 +0%	139 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Hitman 3	109 +0%	109 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	118 +0%	118 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	174 +0%	174 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	87 +0%	87 +0%
Battlefield 5	180−190 +0%	180−190 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	126 +0%	126 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Hitman 3	116 +0%	116 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	144 +0%	144 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	255 +0%	255 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	178 +0%	178 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	81 +0%	81 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	78 +0%	78 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	102 +0%	102 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Hitman 3	111 +0%	111 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	181 +0%	181 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	223 +0%	223 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	121 +0%	121 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	85 +0%	85 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

116

+0%

116

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	90−95 +0%	90−95 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	68 +0%	68 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65 +0%	65 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	62 +0%	62 +0%
Far Cry 5	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Hitman 3	96 +0%	96 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	146 +0%	146 +0%
Metro Exodus	101 +0%	101 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	166 +0%	166 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	95−100 +0%	95−100 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	175 +0%	175 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

114

+0%

114

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Hitman 3	52 +0%	52 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	210−220 +0%	210−220 +0%
Metro Exodus	107 +0%	107 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	90 +0%	90 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	48 +0%	48 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	43 +0%	43 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	30 +0%	30 +0%
Far Cry 5	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	97 +0%	97 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	38 +0%	38 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

This is how HD 7870 XT and RTX 3070 compete in popular games:

RTX 3070 is 452% faster in 1080p
RTX 3070 is 450% faster in 1440p
RTX 3070 is 408% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	11.60	57.99
Recency	19 November 2012	1 September 2020
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	185 Watt	220 Watt

HD 7870 XT has 18.9% lower power consumption.

RTX 3070, on the other hand, has a 399.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3070 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7870 XT in performance tests.

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