RTX A40 vs Radeon HD 8970M
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 523 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 7.19 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | Ampere (2020−2025) |
| GPU code name | Neptune | GA102 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Workstation |
| Release date | 14 May 2013 (13 years ago) | 5 October 2020 (5 years ago) |
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 | 1280 | 10752 |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 1305 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | 1755 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | 28,300 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 300 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 72.00 | 589.7 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.304 TFLOPS | 37.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 112 |
| TMUs | 80 | 336 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 336 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 84 |
| L1 Cache | 320 KB | 10.5 MB |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB | 6 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).
| Laptop size | large | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 267 mm |
| Width | no data | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 8-pin EPS |
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 | 4 GB | 48 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1200 MHz | 1812 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 695.8 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 | No outputs | 3x DisplayPort |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.2 |
| CUDA | - | 8.6 |
| DLSS | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 14 May 2013 | 5 October 2020 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 48 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 300 Watt |
HD 8970M has 200% lower power consumption.
RTX A40, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 7 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8970M and RTX A40. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M is a notebook graphics card while RTX A40 is a workstation one.
Other comparisons
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