Radeon R9 290X2 vs HD 7870M

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking765not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency6.15no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2012−2020)GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)
GPU code nameHeathrowHawaii
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date24 April 2012 (13 years ago)24 June 2014 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$1,399

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 cores6402816 ×2
Core clock speed800 MHz1000 MHz
Number of transistors1,500 million6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)45 Watt580 Watt
Texture fill rate32.00176.0 ×2
Floating-point processing power1.024 TFLOPS5.632 TFLOPS ×2
ROPs1664 ×2
TMUs40176 ×2
L1 Cache160 KB704 KB
L2 Cache256 KB1024 KB

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).

Laptop sizelargeno data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Widthno data3-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data4x 8-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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB4 GB ×2
Memory bus width128 Bit512 Bit ×2
Memory clock speed1000 MHz1350 MHz
Memory bandwidth64 GB/s345.6 GB/s ×2
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputs2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMI-+

API and SDK support

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

DirectX12 (11_1)12 (12_0)
Shader Model5.16.3
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.22.0
Vulkan1.2.1311.2.131

Pros & cons summary


Recency 24 April 2012 24 June 2014
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt 580 Watt

HD 7870M has 1188.9% lower power consumption.

R9 290X2, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, and a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7870M and Radeon R9 290X2. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7870M is a notebook graphics card while Radeon R9 290X2 is a desktop one.

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AMD Radeon HD 7870M
Radeon HD 7870M
AMD Radeon R9 290X2
Radeon R9 290X2

Other comparisons

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Community ratings

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2.4 15 votes

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