GeForce RTX 4090 vs Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

Place in performance ranking	312	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	2
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	31.77	15.19
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Ada Lovelace
GPU code name	Wimbledon XT	AD102-300-A1
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 May 2012 (12 years ago)	20 September 2022 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,599
Current price	$126	$1756 (1.1x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 7970M Crossfire has 109% better value for money than RTX 4090.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2560	16384
Core clock speed	850 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	1,290

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire and GeForce RTX 4090 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 16-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	no data	24 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	21000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	1,008 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	no data	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	no data	+

API compatibility

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.1	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.6
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	no data	1.3
CUDA	no data	8.9

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

HD 7970M Crossfire 15.99

RTX 4090 100.00
+525%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire by 525% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 7970M Crossfire 11119

RTX 4090 104937
+844%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire by 844% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 7970M Crossfire 31127

RTX 4090 137170
+341%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire by 341% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	132 −506%	800−850 +506%
Full HD	107 −150%	268 +150%
1440p	30−35 −593%	208 +593%
4K	24−27 −533%	152 +533%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

24−27

−800%

225
+800%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 −612%	235 +612%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	27−30 −963%	287 +963%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −369%	240−250 +369%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40 −377%	160−170 +377%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −788%	222 +788%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −223%	130−140 +223%
Far Cry New Dawn	45−50 −260%	160−170 +260%
Forza Horizon 4	50−55 −509%	300−350 +509%
Hitman 3	35−40 −305%	150−160 +305%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 −735%	434 +735%
Metro Exodus	45−50 −215%	150−160 +215%
Red Dead Redemption 2	45−50 −176%	120−130 +176%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 −1107%	543 +1107%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −548%	188 +548%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 −570%	221 +570%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	27−30 −819%	248 +819%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −369%	240−250 +369%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40 −377%	160−170 +377%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −756%	214 +756%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −244%	148 +244%
Far Cry New Dawn	45−50 −88.9%	85 +88.9%
Forza Horizon 4	50−55 −509%	300−350 +509%
Hitman 3	35−40 −305%	150−160 +305%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 −740%	437 +740%
Metro Exodus	45−50 −256%	171 +256%
Red Dead Redemption 2	45−50 −176%	120−130 +176%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 −829%	418 +829%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −1585%	573 +1585%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −497%	173 +497%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 −442%	179 +442%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	27−30 −715%	220 +715%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40 −377%	160−170 +377%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −740%	210 +740%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −223%	130−140 +223%
Forza Horizon 4	50−55 −509%	300−350 +509%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 −658%	394 +658%
Metro Exodus	45−50 −221%	154 +221%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −797%	305 +797%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −428%	153 +428%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

45−50

−176%

120−130
+176%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −435%	160−170 +435%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−33 −380%	140−150 +380%
Hitman 3	21−24 −426%	120−130 +426%
Red Dead Redemption 2	12−14 −675%	90−95 +675%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16−18 −812%	155 +812%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 −1308%	183 +1308%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20−22 −460%	110−120 +460%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −1611%	154 +1611%
Far Cry 5	24−27 −615%	186 +615%
Forza Horizon 4	30−33 −863%	280−290 +863%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −1113%	388 +1113%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −424%	152 +424%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−33 −1580%	504 +1580%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −1476%	268 +1476%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−11 −1420%	152 +1420%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry 5	30−35 −271%	126 +271%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 −788%	140−150 +788%
Hitman 3	12−14 −592%	80−85 +592%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −1135%	210 +1135%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −1760%	186 +1760%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −1767%	280 +1767%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 −1233%	120 +1233%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9 −1400%	120 +1400%
Battlefield 5	16−18 −700%	130−140 +700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −727%	90−95 +727%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −2567%	80 +2567%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −1124%	250−260 +1124%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 −1576%	285 +1576%
Metro Exodus	14−16 −867%	145 +867%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 −1850%	117 +1850%