Radeon RX 9070 vs HD 7970 GHz Edition
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 40 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 65.76 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 21.40 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | RDNA 4.0 (2025−2026) |
| GPU code name | Tahiti | Navi 48 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | reference | no data |
| Release date | 22 June 2012 (14 years ago) | 6 March 2025 (1 year ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $499 | $549 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
The higher the ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices.
Performance to price scatter graph
Currently popular graphics cards are shown for comparison.
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Real power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially if overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 2048 | 3584 |
| Core clock speed | no data | 1330 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1050 MHz | 2520 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 4,313 million | 53,900 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 220 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 134.4 | 564.5 |
| Floating-point processing power | 4.301 TFLOPS | 36.13 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 128 |
| TMUs | 128 | 224 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 112 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 56 |
| L0 Cache | no data | 896 KB |
| L1 Cache | 512 KB | no data |
| L2 Cache | 768 KB | 8 MB |
| L3 Cache | no data | 64 MB |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Bus support | PCIe 2.1 x16 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |
| Length | 274 mm | 267 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 2x 8-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 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 16 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1500 MHz | 2518 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 288 GB/s | 644.6 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
| Resizable BAR | - | + |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1a |
| Eyefinity | + | - |
| HDMI | + | + |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| CrossFire | + | - |
| FreeSync | + | - |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | DirectX® 11 | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.8 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| Vulkan | - | 1.3 |
| DLSS | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 22 June 2012 | 6 March 2025 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 16 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 220 Watt |
RX 9070 has an age advantage of 12 years, a 433% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 460% more advanced lithography process, and 14% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and Radeon RX 9070. We've got no test results to judge.
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