NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M vs AMD Radeon HD 7970

VS
Performance
GeForce GTX 870M
7,1567% of 104,598
Radeon HD 79709% better
7,7707% of 104,598

The Radeon HD 7970 has 9% better performance than the GeForce GTX 870M for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 870M
No data available
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The Radeon HD 7970 has 9% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: AMD Radeon RX 7600.

Shop GeForce GTX 870M
Shop Radeon HD 7970
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Summary

#

About the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M is an end-of-life mobile graphics card that released in Q1 2014. It is built on the Kepler GPU microarchitecture (codename GK104) and is manufactured on a 28 nm process.

Memory

The GTX 870M has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 1,250 MHz memory clock and a 192 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 120 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 870M includes 1,344 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 941 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 967 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 112 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 24 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GPU has a thermal design power (TDP) of 100 W. A power supply not strong enough to handle this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

Benchmark Performance

The GTX 870M has the 216th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 6.84% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

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.

InfoGeForce GTX 870MRadeon HD 7970
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureKeplerGCN 1.0
Market SegmentMobileDesktop
Release DateQ1 2014Q1 2012
Launch Price (MSRP)--$549
Production StatusEnd-of-lifeEnd-of-life
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

#

Select a game to compare FPS metrics

Display FPS for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Display FPS for Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Display FPS for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3
Display FPS for Grand Theft Auto V
GTA V
Display FPS for BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite
Display FPS for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
CS: GO

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 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
GeForce GTX 870MRadeon HD 7970
Low - 720p
51 FPS
--
Medium - 768p
34 FPS
--
High - 1080p
20 FPS
--
Ultra - 1080p
9 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:GeForce GTX 870M 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 870M orRadeon HD 7970
GPUCost Per Frame
Our database does not have enough data to compare the FPS per dollar with other GPUs.

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 870M
7,1567% of 104,598
Radeon HD 79709% better
7,7707% of 104,598

The Radeon HD 7970 has 9% better performance than the GeForce GTX 870M for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 870M is ranked 216th with a score of 7,156, and the Radeon HD 7970 is ranked 211th with a score of 7,770.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 870M
No data available
Radeon HD 7970
14.159% of 161.45

The Radeon HD 7970 has 22% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

Radeon HD 7970's 14.15 performance per dollar ranks it 0th among the other benchmarked GPUs in our database.

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 870M 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 870M orRadeon HD 7970

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 870MRadeon HD 7970
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
31,322
43,795
(+39.82%)
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
4,694
6,862
(+46.19%)
3DMark 11 Performance Score
7,120
7,323
(+2.85%)
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
93.8
--
PassMark G3D Mark
3,450
5,248
(+52.12%)
PassMark G2D Mark
275
738
(+168.36%)
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
64.7
77.8
(+20.25%)
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

#

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 870MRadeon HD 7970
CodenameGK104Tahiti
ArchitectureKeplerGCN 1.0
Process Size28 nm28 nm
Transistors3,540 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 870MRadeon HD 7970
Memory Size3 GB3 GB
Memory TypeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth120 Gb/s264 Gb/s
Memory Clock1,250 MHz1,375 MHz
Memory Interface192 bit384 bit
L1 Cache16 KB16 KB
L2 Cache384 KB768 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 870MRadeon HD 7970
Slots--2 slots
Bus InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)100 W250 W
Suggested PSU--600 W
Power Connectors--1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsDevice DependentDVI, 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 870MRadeon HD 7970
Stream Processors (SP)--2,048
CUDA Cores1,344--
Compute Units (CU)--32
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)7--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)112128
Render Output Units (ROP)2432
Core Clock Speed941 MHz925 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)967 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 870MRadeon HD 7970
Pixel Fill Rate27.08 GPixel/s29.6 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate108.3 GTexel/s118.4 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance2.6 TFLOPS3.79 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance108.3 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 870MRadeon HD 7970
DirectX12 (11_0)12 (11_1)
OpenCL3.02.1 (1.2)
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.5 (5.1)6.5 (5.1)

Check out these comparisons for similar GPUs:

Looking for alternatives? Check out these similar GPUs:

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