ATI Radeon HD 5970 vs NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Comparative analysis of ATI Radeon HD 5970 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score, GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps).

 

Differences

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 5970

  • Videocard is newer: launch date 2 year(s) 6 month(s) later
  • Around 18% higher core clock speed: 725 MHz vs 612 MHz
  • 6.6x more texture fill rate: 2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 39.2 billion / sec
  • 25x more pipelines: 2x 1600 vs 128
  • 12x better floating-point performance: 2x 2,320.0 gflops vs 387.1 gflops
  • A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 40 nm vs 90 nm
  • 4x more maximum memory size: 2 GB vs 512 MB
  • 3.7x more memory clock speed: 4000 MHz vs 1080 MHz
  • 3.5x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 2282 vs 643
  • Around 66% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 418 vs 252
Specifications (specs)
Launch date 18 November 2009 vs 2 May 2007
Core clock speed 725 MHz vs 612 MHz
Texture fill rate 2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 39.2 billion / sec
Pipelines 2x 1600 vs 128
Floating-point performance 2x 2,320.0 gflops vs 387.1 gflops
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm vs 90 nm
Maximum memory size 2 GB vs 512 MB
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz vs 1080 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark 2282 vs 643
PassMark - G2D Mark 418 vs 252

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

  • Around 75% lower typical power consumption: 171 Watt vs 300 Watt
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 171 Watt vs 300 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: ATI Radeon HD 5970
GPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

PassMark - G3D Mark
GPU 1
GPU 2
2282
643
PassMark - G2D Mark
GPU 1
GPU 2
418
252
Name ATI Radeon HD 5970 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
PassMark - G3D Mark 2282 643
PassMark - G2D Mark 418 252
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames) 3977
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps) 3977
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score 0
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames) 3454
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps) 3454
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames) 3213
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps) 3213

Compare specifications (specs)

ATI Radeon HD 5970 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Essentials

Architecture TeraScale 2 Tesla
Code name Hemlock G80
Design ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
Launch date 18 November 2009 2 May 2007
Launch price (MSRP) $699 $829
Place in performance rating 615 616
Type Desktop Desktop

Technical info

Boost clock speed 725 MHz
Core clock speed 725 MHz 612 MHz
Floating-point performance 2x 2,320.0 gflops 387.1 gflops
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 90 nm
Pipelines 2x 1600 128
Texture fill rate 2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec 39.2 billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 300 Watt 171 Watt
Transistor count 2,154 million 681 million
CUDA cores 612

Video outputs and ports

Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort 2x DVI, 1x S-Video
DisplayPort support
Dual-link DVI support
VGA

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 1.0 x16
Length 305 mm 270 mm
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin 2x 6-pin

API support

DirectX 11 10.0
OpenGL 4.4 3.3

Memory

Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 512 MB
Memory bandwidth 2x 128.0 GB / s 103.7 GB / s
Memory bus width 2x 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz 1080 MHz
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR3

Technologies

AMD Eyefinity
SLI