GeForce FX 5900 Ultra vs Radeon HD 7870
Aggregate performance score
We've compared Radeon HD 7870 and GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.
HD 7870 outperforms FX 5900 Ultra by a whopping 10827% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 403 | 1444 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 3.00 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 4.79 | 0.13 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | Rankine (2003−2005) |
| GPU code name | Pitcairn | NV35 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 5 March 2012 (12 years ago) | 23 October 2003 (21 year ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $349 | $499 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
HD 7870 and FX 5900 Ultra have a nearly equal value for money.
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 | 1280 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 1000 MHz | 450 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | 135 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 130 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 175 Watt | 59 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 80.00 | 3.600 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.56 TFLOPS | no data |
| ROPs | 32 | 4 |
| TMUs | 80 | 8 |
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 | AGP 8x |
| Length | 241 mm | 218 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin | 1x Molex |
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 | DDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 256 MB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1200 MHz | 425 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 27.2 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | no data |
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 DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video |
| Eyefinity | + | - |
| HDMI | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 9.0a |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | no data |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 1.5 (2.1) |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | N/A |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
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.
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.
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:
| 900p | 84 | 0−1 |
| Full HD | 68 | 0−1 |
Cost per frame, $
| 1080p | 5.13 | no data |
FPS performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | 0−1 |
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Battlefield 5 | 35−40 | 0−1 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27 | 0−1 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry 5 | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 30−35 | 0−1 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 80−85 | 0−1 |
| Hitman 3 | 21−24 | 0−1 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 60−65 | 0−1 |
| Metro Exodus | 40−45 | 0−1 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 30−35 | 0−1 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 35−40 | 0−1 |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 65−70 | 0−1 |
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Battlefield 5 | 35−40 | 0−1 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27 | 0−1 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry 5 | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 30−35 | 0−1 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 80−85 | 0−1 |
| Hitman 3 | 21−24 | 0−1 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 60−65 | 0−1 |
| Metro Exodus | 40−45 | 0−1 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 30−35 | 0−1 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 35−40 | 0−1 |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 30−33 | 0−1 |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 65−70 | 0−1 |
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27 | 0−1 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry 5 | 27−30 | 0−1 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 80−85 | 0−1 |
| Hitman 3 | 21−24 | 0−1 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 60−65 | 0−1 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 35−40 | 0−1 |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 20 | 0−1 |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 65−70 | 0−1 |
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 30−35 | 0−1 |
1440p
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 21−24 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 18−20 | 0−1 |
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 12−14 | 0−1 |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 8−9 | 0−1 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 12−14 | 0−1 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 6−7 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry 5 | 14−16 | 0−1 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 55−60 | 0−1 |
| Hitman 3 | 14−16 | 0−1 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 24−27 | 0−1 |
| Metro Exodus | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 18−20 | 0−1 |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 12−14 | 0−1 |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 75−80 | 0−1 |
1440p
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 20−22 | 0−1 |
4K
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 10−12 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry New Dawn | 9−10 | 0−1 |
| Hitman 3 | 8−9 | 0−1 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 55−60 | 0−1 |
| Metro Exodus | 10−12 | 0−1 |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10−11 | 0−1 |
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 7−8 | 0−1 |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 5−6 | 0−1 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 6−7 | 0−1 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2−3 | 0−1 |
| Far Cry 5 | 6−7 | 0−1 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 16−18 | 0−1 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 10−11 | 0−1 |
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 5−6 | 0−1 |
4K
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 10−12 | 0−1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 12.02 | 0.11 |
| Recency | 5 March 2012 | 23 October 2003 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 256 MB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 130 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 175 Watt | 59 Watt |
HD 7870 has a 10827.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 364.3% more advanced lithography process.
FX 5900 Ultra, on the other hand, has 196.6% lower power consumption.
The Radeon HD 7870 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra in performance tests.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
