Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition vs GeForce 8500 GT
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Tesla (2006−2010) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | G86 | Blackcomb |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 17 April 2007 (17 years ago) | 25 August 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $129 | no data |
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 16 | 960 |
| Core clock speed | 459 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 210 million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 80 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 30 Watt | 75 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 3.672 | 32.64 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.02938 TFLOPS | 1.306 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 4 | 32 |
| TMUs | 8 | 48 |
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).
| Interface | PCIe 1.0 x16 | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Length | 229 mm | no data |
| Width | 1-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | None |
| SLI options | + | - |
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 | GDDR3 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 2 GB |
| Standard memory config per GPU | 256 MB | no data |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 400 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 12.8 GB/s | 115.2 GB/s |
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 | 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video | No outputs |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_0) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 2.1 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | 1.1 | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 17 April 2007 | 25 August 2011 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 80 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 30 Watt | 75 Watt |
8500 GT has 150% lower power consumption.
HD 6970M Mac Edition, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce 8500 GT and Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce 8500 GT is a desktop card while Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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