Graphics card comparison
Radeon HD 6870 vs GeForce GTX 650
AMD
Radeon HD 6870
1024 Mb GDDR5
Released 21 Oct 2010
DESKTOP
VS
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 650
1024 Mb GDDR5
Released 27 Nov 2013
DESKTOP
Summary
Synthetic performance index
- Radeon HD 6870157%
- GeForce GTX 650100%
Relative performance
Gaming performance index
- Radeon HD 6870158%
- GeForce GTX 650100%
Relative performance
Reasons to consider the Radeon HD 6870
- 58% higher gaming performance.
- Based on an outdated architecture (ATI TeraScale), there are no performance optimizations for current games and applications
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 650
- 86 watts lower power draw. This might be a strong point if your current power supply is not enough to handle the Radeon HD 6870 .
- This is a much newer product, it might have better long term support.
- Supports PhysX
- Supports G-Sync
- Supports ShadowPlay (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
- Based on an outdated architecture (Nvidia Kepler), there are less performance optimizations for current games and applications
Our verdict
HWSpot recommends the Radeon HD 6870
The Radeon HD 6870 is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (38 combinations of games and resolutions).
Specifications
Core configuration
| Radeon HD 6870 | GeForce GTX 650 |
|---|
| GPU Name | Barts (Barts XT) | GK106 () |
| Fab Process | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Die Size | 255 mm² | 221 mm² |
| Transistors | 1,700 million | 2,540 million |
| Shaders | 1120 | 384 |
| Compute Units | 14 | 2 |
| Core clock | 900 MHz | 1058 MHz |
| ROPs | 32 | 16 |
| TMUs | 56 | 32 |
Memory configuration
| Radeon HD 6870 | GeForce GTX 650 |
|---|
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 256 bit | 128 bit |
| Memory Speed | 1050 MHz
4200 MHz effective | 1250 MHz
5000 MHz effective |
| Memory Size | 1024 Mb | 1024 Mb |
Additional details
| Radeon HD 6870 | GeForce GTX 650 |
|---|
| TDP | 151 watts | 65 watts |
| Release Date | 21 Oct 2010 | 27 Nov 2013 |
Raw performance comparison
Pixel Rate
- Radeon HD 687028.80 GP/s
- GeForce GTX 6508.46 GP/s
GigaPixels - higher is better
Texel Rate
- Radeon HD 687050.40 GT/s
- GeForce GTX 65033.90 GT/s
GigaTexels - higher is better
Memory bandwidth
- Radeon HD 6870134.00 GB/s
- GeForce GTX 65080.00 GB/s
GB/s - higher is better
Single precision performance
- Radeon HD 68702016.00 GFLOPs
- GeForce GTX 650812.50 GFLOPs
GFLOPs - higher is better
Synthetic benchmarks
3DMark 11
- Radeon HD 68704540
- GeForce GTX 6502880
Points (higher is better)
Game benchmarks
Alan Wake
- Radeon HD 687045
- GeForce GTX 65025.2
FPS (higher is better)
Batman: Arkham City
- Radeon HD 687048.7
- GeForce GTX 65035.8
FPS (higher is better)
Battlefield 3
- Radeon HD 687030.9
- GeForce GTX 65023.5
FPS (higher is better)
Borderlands 2
- Radeon HD 687061.8
- GeForce GTX 65044.7
FPS (higher is better)
Crysis
- Radeon HD 687030.8
- GeForce GTX 65018.8
FPS (higher is better)
Crysis 2
- Radeon HD 687031.3
- GeForce GTX 65021.6
FPS (higher is better)
Diablo III
- Radeon HD 687085.1
- GeForce GTX 65051.7
FPS (higher is better)
Dragon Age II
- Radeon HD 687032.4
- GeForce GTX 65020.7
FPS (higher is better)
F1 2012
- Radeon HD 687052.5
- GeForce GTX 65034.5
FPS (higher is better)
Max Payne 3
- Radeon HD 687036.1
- GeForce GTX 65023
FPS (higher is better)
Metro 2033
- Radeon HD 687017.6
- GeForce GTX 65011.5
FPS (higher is better)
Sleeping Dogs
- Radeon HD 687039.8
- GeForce GTX 65020.5
FPS (higher is better)
Sniper Elite V2
- Radeon HD 687039
- GeForce GTX 65019.4
FPS (higher is better)
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
- Radeon HD 687049.6
- GeForce GTX 65030.6
FPS (higher is better)
StarCraft II
- Radeon HD 6870106.7
- GeForce GTX 65083.4
FPS (higher is better)
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
- Radeon HD 687048
- GeForce GTX 65029.9
FPS (higher is better)
Total War: Shogun 2
- Radeon HD 687028.3
- GeForce GTX 65018.6
FPS (higher is better)
Unigine Heaven 2.0
- Radeon HD 687027.1
- GeForce GTX 65022.7
FPS (higher is better)
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- Radeon HD 687052.8
- GeForce GTX 65032.6
FPS (higher is better)
Alan Wake
- Radeon HD 687028.1
- GeForce GTX 65015
FPS (higher is better)
Batman: Arkham City
- Radeon HD 687030.2
- GeForce GTX 65021.4
FPS (higher is better)
Battlefield 3
- Radeon HD 687017.6
- GeForce GTX 65013.9
FPS (higher is better)
Borderlands 2
- Radeon HD 687038.4
- GeForce GTX 65026.3
FPS (higher is better)
Crysis
- Radeon HD 687018.8
- GeForce GTX 65011.1
FPS (higher is better)
Crysis 2
- Radeon HD 687019
- GeForce GTX 65012.5
FPS (higher is better)
Diablo III
- Radeon HD 687059.4
- GeForce GTX 65034.5
FPS (higher is better)
Dragon Age II
- Radeon HD 687022.2
- GeForce GTX 65013.3
FPS (higher is better)
F1 2012
- Radeon HD 687036.9
- GeForce GTX 65023.9
FPS (higher is better)
Max Payne 3
- Radeon HD 687024.7
- GeForce GTX 65015
FPS (higher is better)
Metro 2033
- Radeon HD 687011.4
- GeForce GTX 6508.3
FPS (higher is better)
Sleeping Dogs
- Radeon HD 687023.7
- GeForce GTX 65010.7
FPS (higher is better)
Sniper Elite V2
- Radeon HD 687024
- GeForce GTX 65012.2
FPS (higher is better)
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
- Radeon HD 687029.7
- GeForce GTX 65018.3
FPS (higher is better)
StarCraft II
- Radeon HD 687080.7
- GeForce GTX 65052.4
FPS (higher is better)
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
- Radeon HD 687030.4
- GeForce GTX 65017.5
FPS (higher is better)
Total War: Shogun 2
- Radeon HD 687017
- GeForce GTX 65011.1
FPS (higher is better)
Unigine Heaven 2.0
- Radeon HD 687018
- GeForce GTX 65014.7
FPS (higher is better)
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- Radeon HD 687037.1
- GeForce GTX 65022.3
FPS (higher is better)