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Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon HD 6950

Intro

The Radeon HD 5870 features a GPU core speed of 850 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1600(320x5) Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 6950, which features a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5870 188 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 200 Watts
Difference: 12 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6950 should be a bit faster than the Radeon HD 5870 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 160000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5870 153600 MB/sec
Difference: 6400 (4%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 is a small bit (about 4%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5870. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 70400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5870 68000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 2400 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 will be just a bit (about 6%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 6950, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870 27200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6950 25600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1600 (6%)

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

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Radeon HD 5870

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 6950

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model Radeon HD 5870 Radeon HD 6950
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year September 23, 2009 December 2010
Code Name Cypress XT Cayman Pro
Memory 1024 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 850 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 4800 MHz 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 188 watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 153600 MB/sec 160000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 68000 Mtexels/sec 70400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 27200 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 1600(320x5) 1408
Texture Mapping Units 80 88
Render Output Units 32 32
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 40 nm
Transistors 2154 million 2640 million
Bus PCIe 2.1 x16 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.2 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 5870

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

8 Responses to “Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon HD 6950”
mauro says:

muy buena la pagina es exactamente lo que estaba buscando...muy pero muy buena, mas aya de que los resultados no sean exactos, la idea esta...y es exelente, felicitaciones!!

Fragen zu Battlefield 3 Grafik. Was glaubt ihr? - Seite 6 says:

[...] habe dann ist der Unterschied nicht wirklich merkbar. Hier sieht du ganz grob den Unterschied Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon HD 6950 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare Zitieren + [...]

Battlefield 3 specs says:

[...] to be enjoyed? How big difference is there really between HD5870 and HD6950? Please enlight me.. http://www.hwcompare.com/6132/radeon...adeon-hd-6950/ An answer would be appreciated.... Attached Images [...]

Viking2121 says:

No difference at all, Overclock a tad and it faster than the 6950, only thing thats better is more vram.

larsV12 says:

@mauro .. like Viking says - only, i'd add that the 6950 offers OpenGL 4.1 support. What that means, in rel terms, is it might be slightly better optimized for newer, 3D gaming titles that utilise OpenGL. Other than that? They're very evenly matched cards .. so put it like this: flip a coin - heads for the 5870, tails for the 6950 - to pick one ... i guarantee you won't be disappointed with the outcome ;P

George Kohler says:

The 2GB 6950 is the way to go! You can flash the 6970 firmware and unlock the locked shader cores and if you use the ASUS firmware you can even add a 20% overclock to blow the 5870 out of the water. Crisis 3 with everything maxed out hits 136 FPS with the ASUS 6970 firmware and 20% boost and runs at 89 degrees C well below the 95C design limit since it is after all the same exact reference hardware only hobbled by a greedy company to dole out performance. I love finding out these cheesy ploys and exploiting them.

larsV12 says:

@George K ... the 6950 1GB has the same unlock capability ( ..i should know, the rig i'm typing this on has a 6950-1G @ 1536 SPU's ;P ). The 6950-2G's obviously will rule at high res' over the 1GB versions though. I'm getting high 60's, temperature wise (on ref' cooler), with Crysis & idling @ 30-35. Wanna know how to keep these babies running cool - without after-market cooling (... and short of putting the rig in a freezer)?? ... ask me how ;P

LarsV12 says:

Actually, after testing the 5870 vs 6950, on a modest 5.5% bump on the core (to 900), for the 5870, and a 4% bump on the memory clock (to 1250), the 5870 returns, pixel fill: 28.8GP/s, texture fill: 72GT/s and mem' b/w @ 160GB/s. That's slightly better than parity with the 6950. Also consider that the 5870 is known to be able to clock up to core: 1000 & mem:1300 memory: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3286/gigabyte_radeon_hd_5870_1gb_super_overclock_video_card_overclocked_higher/index11.html --> Add to the fact 5870's have 1600 shader cores vs just 1408 for 6950's, and all the sudden the 6950, by all rights, looks more like a 'side-grade' rather than an upgrade.

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