Radeon HD 7870 vs Radeon RX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon RX 480, which features GPU core speed of 1120 MHz, and 8192 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 2000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2304 Stream Processors, 144 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

Radeon RX 480		13349 points
Radeon HD 7870		6230 points
	Difference: 7119 (114%)

Zcash Mining Hash Rate

Radeon RX 480		280 Sol/s
Radeon HD 7870		172 Sol/s
	Difference: 108 (63%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

Radeon RX 480		27 Mh/s
Radeon HD 7870		16 Mh/s
	Difference: 11 (69%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 480		150 Watts
Radeon HD 7870		175 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon RX 480 should in theory be a lot faster than the Radeon HD 7870 in general. (explain)

Radeon RX 480		262144 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7870		153600 MB/sec
	Difference: 108544 (71%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 will be much (about 102%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 7870. (explain)

Radeon RX 480		161280 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 7870		80000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 81280 (102%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 should be a little bit (about 12%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 7870, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon RX 480		35840 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7870		32000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3840 (12%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.