NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 vs AMD Radeon HD 7970

VS
Performance
GeForce GTX 1080277% better
29,26328% of 104,737
Radeon HD 7970
7,7707% of 104,737

The GeForce GTX 1080 has 277% better performance than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1080245% better
48.8530% of 161.45
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The GeForce GTX 1080 has 245% 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 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is an end-of-life desktop graphics card that released in Q2 2016 with a MSRP of $599. It is built on the Pascal GPU microarchitecture (codename GP104) and is manufactured on a 16 nm process.

Memory

The GTX 1080 has 8 GB of GDDR5X memory, with a 1,251 MHz memory clock and a 256 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 320.3 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 GTX 1080 includes 2,560 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,607 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,733 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 160 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 64 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GTX 1080 occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4a display connections. NVIDIA recommends a power supply of at least 450 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 180 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The GTX 1080 has the 78th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 27.94% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 29,263 score and $599 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 48.85. This is the 65th 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 7.42% 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.

InfoGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitecturePascalGCN 1.0
Market SegmentDesktopDesktop
Release DateQ2 2016Q1 2012
Launch Price (MSRP)$599$549
Production StatusEnd-of-lifeEnd-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
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Baldur's Gate 3
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
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Display FPS for F1 2020
F1 2020
Display FPS for Gears Tactics
Gears Tactics
Display FPS for Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3

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
GeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
Low - 1080p
--
--
Medium - 1080p
--
--
High - 1080p
--
--
Ultra - 1080p
47 FPS
--
QHD - 1440p
28 FPS
--
4K UHD - 2160p
11 FPS
--
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:GeForce GTX 1080 orRadeon HD 7970

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:GeForce GTX 1080 orRadeon HD 7970
GPUCost Per Frame
Radeon RX 570025.47-53%
Radeon RX 5700 XT25.58-53%
GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER28.77-47%
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti42.88-21%
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER47.32-13%
GeForce GTX 108054.45

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 1080277% better
29,26328% of 104,737
Radeon HD 7970
7,7707% of 104,737

The GeForce GTX 1080 has 277% better performance than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1080 is ranked 78th with a score of 29,263, and the Radeon HD 7970 is ranked 211th with a score of 7,770.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 1080245% better
48.8530% of 161.45
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The GeForce GTX 1080 has 245% better value for the money than the Radeon HD 7970 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1080 is ranked 65th with a performance per dollar of 48.85, 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:GeForce GTX 1080 or

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:GeForce GTX 1080 or
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
Radeon VII54.19+11%
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti53.89+10%
GeForce GTX 108048.85
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti47.21-3%
Radeon R9 390X41.83-14%
Radeon HD 7870 (GHz Edition)17.75-64%
Radeon HD 687017.65-64%
Radeon HD 797014.15-71%
GeForce GTX 59013.11-73%
GeForce GTX 47012.44-75%

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
BenchmarkGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
7,185
--
3DMark Time Spy Score
6,902
--
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
119,971
(+173.94%)
43,795
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
21,408.5
(+211.99%)
6,862
3DMark 11 Performance Score
21,289.5
(+190.72%)
7,323
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
121.8
--
PassMark G3D Mark
15,542
(+196.15%)
5,248
PassMark G2D Mark
896
(+21.9%)
735
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
269
(+245.76%)
77.8
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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
CodenameGP104Tahiti
ArchitecturePascalGCN 1.0
Process Size16 nm28 nm
Transistors7,200 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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
Memory Size8 GB3 GB
Memory TypeGDDR5XGDDR5
Memory Bandwidth320.3 Gb/s264 Gb/s
Memory Clock1,251 MHz1,375 MHz
Memory Interface256 bit384 bit
L1 Cache48 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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
Slots2 slots2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)180 W250 W
Suggested PSU450 W600 W
Power Connectors1x 8-pin1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsDVI, HDMI 2.0, 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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
Stream Processors (SP)--2,048
CUDA Cores2,560--
Compute Units (CU)--32
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)20--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)160128
Render Output Units (ROP)6432
Core Clock Speed1,607 MHz925 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,733 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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
Pixel Fill Rate110.9 GPixel/s29.6 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate277.3 GTexel/s118.4 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance8.87 TFLOPS3.79 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance277.3 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.

SpecGeForce GTX 1080Radeon HD 7970
DirectX12 (12_1)12 (11_1)
OpenCL3.02.1 (1.2)
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.86.5 (5.1)

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