Radeon 9800 PRO vs HD 7870

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking	375	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	2.75	no data
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Rage 8 (2002−2006)
GPU code name	Pitcairn XT	R350
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	5 March 2012 (12 years ago)	1 March 2003 (21 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$412.83	$399
Current price	$200 (0.5x MSRP)	$54 (0.1x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Detailed specifications

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 cores	1280	no data
Core clock speed	1000 MHz	380 MHz
Number of transistors	2800 Million	117 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	150 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	47 Watt
Texture fill rate	80.00	3.040

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	no data
Width	2-slot	1-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	128 MB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	680 MHz
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	21.76 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	+	no data
HDMI	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	9.0 (9_0)
Shader Model	5.1	no data
OpenGL	4.6	2.0
OpenCL	1.2	N/A
Vulkan	1.2.131	N/A

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

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Pros & cons summary

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Recency	5 March 2012	1 March 2003
Cost	$412.83	$399
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	128 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	150 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	47 Watt

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

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