Then And Now 5 Generations Of Radeon Graphics Compared Benchmarks Thief Watch Dogs

The HD 5870 averaged just 21fps at 1080p, making the 6970 almost 50% faster. The 7970 delivered impressive gains over the 6970 at 65% faster, the 7970 GHz Edition was another 12% faster and the R9 290X topped that by 30% with 74fps. Increasing the resolution to 2560x1600 didn’t change the margins much with the exception of the 5870 vs. 6970, as the older 5870 was again very much limited by its 1GB memory buffer. As a result the 6970 was a whopping 186% faster.

Benchmarking with Watch Dogs saw the HD 5870 average just 25fps at 1080p while the 6970 managed 33fps – 32% faster. However, the 7970 offered the biggest gains as it was 91% faster than the 6970 with 63fps. The 7970 GHz Edition was 6% faster than the 7970 and the R9 290X was 37% faster than the 7970 GHz Edition. The 2560x1600 results were similar, though now the 6970 was 46% faster than the 5870 and the 7970 was 111% faster than the 6970.