NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 vs AMD Radeon HD 6970M

VS
Performance
GeForce GTX 980525% better
17,604.517% of 104,737
Radeon HD 6970M
2,818.53% of 104,737

The GeForce GTX 980 has 525% better performance than the Radeon HD 6970M for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 980
32.0720% of 161.45
Radeon HD 6970M
No data available

The GeForce GTX 980 has 20% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: AMD Radeon RX 7600.

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Summary

#

About the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is an end-of-life desktop graphics card that released in Q3 2014 with a MSRP of $549. It is built on the Maxwell 2.0 GPU microarchitecture (codename GM204) and is manufactured on a 28 nm process.

Memory

The GTX 980 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 1,753 MHz memory clock and a 256 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 224.4 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 980 includes 2,048 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,127 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,216 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 128 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 64 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GTX 980 occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 display connections. NVIDIA recommends a power supply of at least 450 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 165 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The GTX 980 has the 127th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 16.81% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 17,604.5 score and $549 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 32.07. This is the 76th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

About the AMD Radeon HD 6970M GPU

The AMD Radeon HD 6970M is an end-of-life mobile graphics card that released in Q1 2011. It is built on the TeraScale 2 GPU microarchitecture (codename Blackcomb) and is manufactured on a 40 nm process.

Memory

The HD 6970M has 1,024 MB of GDDR5 memory, with a 900 MHz memory clock and a 256 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 115.2 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 6970M includes 960 stream processors (SPs), the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 680 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 48 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 32 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GPU has a thermal design power (TDP) of 75 W. A power supply not strong enough to handle this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

Benchmark Performance

The HD 6970M has the 309th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 2.69% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

General Info

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

InfoGeForce GTX 980Radeon HD 6970M
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0TeraScale 2
Market SegmentDesktopMobile
Release DateQ3 2014Q1 2011
Launch Price (MSRP)$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 Just Cause 4
Just Cause 4
Display FPS for Darksiders III
Darksiders III
Display FPS for Battlefield V
Battlefield V
Display FPS for Hitman 2
Hitman 2
Display FPS for Assassin´s Creed Odyssey
Assassin´s Creed Odyssey
Display FPS for Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4
Display FPS for Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider

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 Just Cause 4
Just Cause 4
GeForce GTX 980Radeon HD 6970M
Low - 720p
109 FPS
--
Medium - 1080p
77 FPS
--
High - 1080p
67 FPS
--
Ultra - 1080p
62 FPS
--
QHD - 1440p
44 FPS
--
4K UHD - 2160p
24 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 980 orRadeon HD 6970M

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 980 orRadeon HD 6970M
GPUCost Per Frame
GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB)13.53-42%
Radeon RX Vega 6413.71-41%
Radeon VII15.3-35%
GeForce GTX 97016.53-29%
GeForce GTX 980 Ti22.46-4%
GeForce GTX 98023.36

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce GTX 980525% better
17,604.517% of 104,737
Radeon HD 6970M
2,818.53% of 104,737

The GeForce GTX 980 has 525% better performance than the Radeon HD 6970M for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 980 is ranked 127th with a score of 17,604.5, and the Radeon HD 6970M is ranked 309th with a score of 2,818.5.

Performance per dollar
GeForce GTX 980
32.0720% of 161.45
Radeon HD 6970M
No data available

The GeForce GTX 980 has 49% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

GeForce GTX 980's 32.07 performance per dollar ranks it 76th 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 980 or
GPUBenchmark Performance
Radeon RX 48017,919+2%
Radeon RX 47017,624.5+0%
GeForce GTX 98017,604.5
Radeon R9 FURY17,543-0%
GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB)17,401-1%
Quadro M600M2,911-83%
GeForce MX1302,875-84%
Radeon HD 6970M2,818.5-84%
GeForce GT 755M2,800.5-84%
GeForce GTX 485M2,709-85%

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 980 orRadeon HD 6970M
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
GeForce GTX 96054.11+69%
GeForce GTX 97048.73+52%
Radeon R9 390X41.83+30%
Radeon R9 280X36.09+13%
GeForce GTX 980 Ti35.53+11%
GeForce GTX 98032.07
Radeon R9 FURY31.95-0%
Radeon R9 290X29.45-8%
Radeon R9 Nano26.63-17%
GeForce GTX 780 Ti22.34-30%

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 980Radeon HD 6970M
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
85,374
--
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
12,938
--
3DMark 11 Performance Score
14,169
(+363.95%)
3,054
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
109.6
--
PassMark G3D Mark
11,098
(+388.9%)
2,270
PassMark G2D Mark
798
(+22.58%)
651
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
129.7
--
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 980Radeon HD 6970M
CodenameGM204Blackcomb
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0TeraScale 2
Process Size28 nm40 nm
Transistors5,200 million1,700 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 980Radeon HD 6970M
Memory Size4 GB1,024 MB
Memory TypeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth224.4 Gb/s115.2 Gb/s
Memory Clock1,753 MHz900 MHz
Memory Interface256 bit256 bit
L1 Cache48 KB8 KB
L2 Cache2 MB512 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 980Radeon HD 6970M
Slots2 slots--
Bus InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16MXM-B (3.0)
Thermal Design Power (TDP)165 W75 W
Suggested PSU450 W--
Power Connectors2x 6-pin--
OutputsDVI, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2Device Dependent

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 980Radeon HD 6970M
Stream Processors (SP)--960
CUDA Cores2,048--
Compute Units (CU)--12
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)12848
Render Output Units (ROP)6432
Core Clock Speed1,127 MHz680 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,216 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 980Radeon HD 6970M
Pixel Fill Rate77.82 GPixel/s21.76 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate155.6 GTexel/s32.64 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance4.98 TFLOPS1,306 GFLOPS
FP64 Performance155.6 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 980Radeon HD 6970M
DirectX12 (12_1)11.2 (11_0)
OpenCL3.01.2
OpenGL4.64.4
Shader Model6.85.0

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