AMD Radeon RX 480 vs AMD Radeon HD 7970

VS
Performance
Radeon RX 480131% better
17,91917% of 104,598
Radeon HD 7970
7,7707% of 104,598

The Radeon RX 480 has 131% better performance than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
Radeon RX 480453% better
78.2548% of 161.45
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The Radeon RX 480 has 453% better value for the money than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

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Summary

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About the AMD Radeon RX 480 GPU

The AMD Radeon RX 480 is a desktop graphics card that launched in Q2 2016 with a MSRP of $229. It is built on the GCN 4.0 GPU microarchitecture (codename Ellesmere) and is manufactured on a 14 nm process.

Memory

The RX 480 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 2,000 MHz memory clock and a 256 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 256 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The RX 480 includes 2,304 stream processors (SPs), the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,120 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,266 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 144 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 32 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The RX 480 occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4a display connections. AMD recommends a power supply of at least 450 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 150 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The RX 480 has the 124th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 17.13% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 17,919 score and $229 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 78.25. This is the 38th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

About the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is an end-of-life desktop graphics card that released in Q1 2012 with a MSRP of $549. It is built on the GCN 1.0 GPU microarchitecture (codename Tahiti) and is manufactured on a 28 nm process.

Memory

The HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 1,375 MHz memory clock and a 384 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 264 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The HD 7970 includes 2,048 stream processors (SPs), the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 925 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 128 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 32 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The HD 7970 occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 1.4a, mini-DisplayPort 1.2 display connections. AMD recommends a power supply of at least 600 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 250 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The HD 7970 has the 211th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 7.43% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 7,770 score and $549 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 14.15. This is the 92nd best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

General Info

General overview of the GPU, including details like its manufacturer, release date, launch price, and current production status.

InfoRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
ManufacturerAMDAMD
ArchitectureGCN 4.0GCN 1.0
Market SegmentDesktopDesktop
Release DateQ2 2016Q1 2012
Launch Price (MSRP)$229$549
Production StatusActiveEnd-of-life
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

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Select a game to compare FPS metrics

Display FPS for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Display FPS for Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3
Display FPS for Outriders
Outriders
Display FPS for Flight Simulator 2020
Flight Simulator 2020
Display FPS for Valorant
Valorant
Display FPS for Gears Tactics
Gears Tactics
Display FPS for Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2

FPS Benchmarks

This table showcases the average frame rate (FPS) achieved both GPUs in at various resolutions. Frame rate is a crucial indicator of how smoothly the GPU can run the game. A higher FPS generally translates to a smoother gameplay experience.

  • Frames Per Second
FPS data for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Radeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
Low - 1080p
--
--
Medium - 1080p
--
--
High - 1080p
--
--
Ultra - 1080p
29 FPS
--
QHD - 1440p
--
--
4K UHD - 2160p
--
--
FPS Source: Notebookcheck

Compare Frames Per Second (FPS)

The average frame rate (FPS) in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, higher FPS results in a smoother gameplay experience.

Choose Baseline GPU:Radeon RX 480 orRadeon HD 7970
GPUFrames Per Second
Arc A77083.2+192%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER47.5+67%
GeForce GTX 166043.1+51%
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER35.2+24%
Radeon RX 5500 XT34.5+21%
Radeon RX 48028.5
Radeon RX 6500 XT23.5-18%

Compare Cost Per Frame

The average cost per frame in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. Generally, a lower cost per frame implies better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:Radeon RX 480 orRadeon HD 7970
GPUCost Per Frame
Arc A7703.95-51%
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER4.52-44%
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER4.82-40%
Radeon RX 5500 XT4.9-39%
GeForce GTX 16605.08-37%
Radeon RX 4808.04
Radeon RX 6500 XT8.47+5%

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
Radeon RX 480131% better
17,91917% of 104,598
Radeon HD 7970
7,7707% of 104,598

The Radeon RX 480 has 131% better performance than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The Radeon RX 480 is ranked 124th with a score of 17,919, and the Radeon HD 7970 is ranked 211th with a score of 7,770.

Performance per dollar
Radeon RX 480453% better
78.2548% of 161.45
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The Radeon RX 480 has 453% better value for the money than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The Radeon RX 480 is ranked 38th with a performance per dollar of 78.25, and the Radeon HD 7970 is ranked 92nd with a performance per dollar of 14.15.

Relative Performance

The average score in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

Choose Baseline GPU:Radeon RX 480 or
GPUBenchmark Performance
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER18,224.5+2%
Radeon R9 390X17,944+0%
Radeon RX 48017,919
Radeon RX 47017,624.5-2%
GeForce GTX 98017,604.5-2%
GeForce GTX 9508,351-53%
GeForce GTX 7607,962-56%
Radeon HD 79707,770-57%
Radeon HD 7870 (GHz Edition)6,194-65%
GeForce GTX 750 Ti5,378-70%

Relative Value For Money

The average performance per dollar in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. A higher score implies a better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:Radeon RX 480 or

Benchmark Scores

This table showcases the average performance scores achieved by both GPUs across industry-standard benchmark tests. These scores provide a valuable insight into overall performance. Powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

  • Popular
BenchmarkRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
3,882
--
3DMark Time Spy Score
4,001
--
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
72,213
(+64.89%)
43,795
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
12,186
(+77.59%)
6,862
3DMark 11 Performance Score
15,476
(+111.33%)
7,323
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
166
--
PassMark G3D Mark
8,624
(+64.33%)
5,248
PassMark G2D Mark
786
(+6.5%)
738
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
132
(+69.67%)
77.8
Unigine Heaven 3.0 OpenGL
105
--
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

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Graphics Processor

General information about the graphics processing unit like their architecture, manufacturing process size, and transistor count. Newer GPU architectures generally bring efficiency improvements and may introduce technologies that enhance graphical capabilities.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
CodenameEllesmereTahiti
ArchitectureGCN 4.0GCN 1.0
Process Size14 nm28 nm
Transistors5,700 million4,313 million

Memory Details

Memory specifications like their capacity, bandwidth, and clock speeds. GPU memory stores graphics data like frames, textures, and shadows which helps display rendered images. These specs are crucial for graphics-intense applications like gaming and 3D modeling.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
Memory Size8 GB3 GB
Memory TypeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth256 Gb/s264 Gb/s
Memory Clock2,000 MHz1,375 MHz
Memory Interface256 bit384 bit
L1 Cache16 KB16 KB
L2 Cache2 MB768 KB

Board Compatibility

Compatibility information like their slot size, bus interface, power consumption, and display support. These specs are useful for verifying compatibility with your motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
Slots2 slots2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)150 W250 W
Suggested PSU450 W600 W
Power Connectors1x 6-pin1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsHDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4aDVI, HDMI 1.4a, mini-DisplayPort 1.2

Cores & Clock Speeds

Processing power information like its cores and clock speed. These specs impact how fast they can process graphics. Each type of core or component serves a specific computational purpose.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
Stream Processors (SP)2,3042,048
Compute Units (CU)3632
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)144128
Render Output Units (ROP)3232
Core Clock Speed1,120 MHz925 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,266 MHz--

Theoretical Performance

Theoretical performance numbers derived from the raw specifications of the different components like core count and clock speeds. While these provide a glimpse into peak processing power, they do not represent real-world performance.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
Pixel Fill Rate40.51 GPixel/s29.6 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate182.3 GTexel/s118.4 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance5.83 TFLOPS3.79 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance364.6 GFLOPS947.2 GFLOPS

API Support

Graphics API versions supported by these graphics cards. APIs evolve over time, introducing new features and functionalities. Older GPUs may not support recent versions.

SpecRadeon RX 480Radeon HD 7970
DirectX12 (12_0)12 (11_1)
OpenCL2.12.1 (1.2)
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.76.5 (5.1)

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* Performance rating, performance per dollar, and rankings are based on the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark and MSRP.