Objective To investigate the influence on acetabular stresses after hemisphere and ellipse cup implanted.Methods The same loads are applied on the three-dimensional model of hemisphere cup, ellipse cup and acetabulum respectively to analyze the stresses distribution and then validated it by photoelastic experiment.Results Under the same load conditions, the maximum stress of hemisphere cup was similar with that of ellipse cup, but the later had more uniform stress distribution.Acetabular stresses produced by hemisphere cup were higher than ellipse's, with the similar stresses distribution at the base of acetabulum.Both the concentration stresses were located in the post-lateral region of acetabulum, but there appears an obvious stress concentrative point in hemisphere cup.Conclusion Our findings suggest that acetabular stresses distribution produced by ellipse cup appears more similar as normal actabulum after total hip arthroplasty.