GPUBoss Review Our evaluation of R9 280X vs 7870

Gaming

Real world tests using the latest 3D games

crysis: warhead (2013), Crysis: Warhead (2012) and battlefield 3 (2013)

Benchmarks

Synthetic tests to measure overall performance

3DMark Vantage Texture Fill, 3DMark 11 Graphics, 3DMark Vantage Graphics and 1 more

Compute Performance

General computing tests executed on the GPU

Civilization 5 Texture Decomposition (2013) and CLBenchmark Raytrace

Noise and Power

How loud and hot does the card run idle and under load

TDP, Idle Noise Level, Load Noise Level, Idle Power Consumption and 1 more

GPUBoss Score

Gaming, Benchmarks, Compute Performance and Noise and Power

Winner
ASUS Radeon HD 7870 

GPUBoss recommends the ASUS Radeon HD 7870  based on its .

See full details

Cast your vote Do you agree or disagree with GPUBoss?

Thanks for adding your opinion. Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news!
VS
Front view of Radeon HD 7870

ASUS Radeon HD 7870

GPUBoss Winner

Differences What are the advantages of each

Front view of Radeon R9 280X

Reasons to consider the
XFX Radeon R9 280X

Report a correction
Much better 3DMark 11 graphics score 28,452 vs 6,194 More than 4.5x better 3DMark 11 graphics score
Better 3DMark vantage texture fill score 114.2 vs 72.1 Around 60% better 3DMark vantage texture fill score
More memory 3,072 MB vs 2,048 MB 50% more memory
Higher effective memory clock speed 6,000 MHz vs 4,840 MHz Around 25% higher effective memory clock speed
Significantly more energy-efficient idle power consumption 79W vs 108W More than 25% more energy-efficient idle power consumption
Much higher crysis 3 framerate 91 fps vs 25.8 fps More than 3.5x higher crysis 3 framerate
Better floating-point performance 3,482 GFLOPS vs 2,586 GFLOPS Around 35% better floating-point performance
Significantly quieter idle noise level 36.8 dB vs 39.5 dB More than 5% quieter idle noise level
More shading units 2,048 vs 1,280 768 more shading units
More texture mapping units 128 vs 80 48 more texture mapping units
Quieter load noise level 46.1 dB vs 48.8 dB More than 5% quieter load noise level
More compute units 32 vs 20 12 more compute units
Higher memory clock speed 1,500 MHz vs 1,210 MHz Around 25% higher memory clock speed
Higher crysis: warhead framerate 62.5 fps vs 44.2 fps More than 40% higher crysis: warhead framerate
Better civilization 5 texture decomposition (2013) score 339.1 vs 296.7 Around 15% better civilization 5 texture decomposition (2013) score
Higher battlefield 3 framerate 106.5 fps vs 78.8 fps More than 35% higher battlefield 3 framerate
Wider memory bus 384 bit vs 256 bit 50% wider memory bus
Front view of Radeon HD 7870

Reasons to consider the
ASUS Radeon HD 7870

Report a correction
Much better 3DMark vantage graphics score 23,592 vs 13.5 More than 1747.5x better 3DMark vantage graphics score
Significantly higher clock speed 1,010 MHz vs 850 MHz Around 20% higher clock speed
Significantly better 3DMark06 score 23,230 vs 10,792 Around 2.2x better 3DMark06 score
Much better CLBenchmark raytrace score 200,951 vs 9,380 Around 21.5x better CLBenchmark raytrace score
Lower TDP 175W vs 250W 30% lower TDP

Benchmarks Real world tests of Radeon R9 280X vs Radeon HD 7870

3DMark Vantage (Texture Fill) Industry standard benchmark that tests DirectX performance

3DMark 11, as the name might probably suggest, makes use of the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and puts every feature of it to use, creating astonishingly realistic visuals.
Radeon HD 7870 | by techPowerUp! (Sep, 2012)

3DMark 11 Graphics Industry standard benchmark that tests DirectX 11 GPU performance

Crysis: Warhead (2013) 1920x1080 - Enthusiast Quality + 4xAA

Radeon R9 280X
62.5 fps
Radeon HD 7870
44.2 fps
Radeon R9 280X Radeon HD 7870 @ anandtech.com
Since Crysis 2 is a multi-platform game with major development focus on the console, the graphics on launch day were only DirectX 9.
Radeon HD 7870 | by techPowerUp! (Sep, 2012)

Battlefield 3 (2013) 1920x1080 - Ultra quality + FXAA-HIGH

Radeon R9 280X
106.5 fps
Radeon HD 7870
78.8 fps
Radeon R9 280X Radeon HD 7870 @ anandtech.com
A few months after the launch, the game was transformed into a Play4Free branded game.
Radeon HD 7870 | by techPowerUp! (Sep, 2012)

Crysis 3 1920 x 1080 - Very High preset + 16xAF + 2xSMAA

Radeon HD 7870
25.8 fps
We chose Crysis 2 as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage, because it offers the following: very high power draw; high repeatability; is a current game that is supported on all cards because of its DirectX 9 roots; drivers are actively tested and optimized for it; supports all multi-GPU configurations; test runs in a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.
Radeon HD 7870 | by techPowerUp! (Sep, 2012)

CLBenchmark Raytrace Measures compute performance using OpenCL to do raytracing

Reviews Word on the street

Radeon R9 280X  vs Radeon HD 7870 

8.5
8.9
Looking at performance-per-watt in games, the HD 7870 jokerCard is the least power-efficient card from AMD.
Radeon HD 7870

Comments

comments powered by Disqus