Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition vs GeForce FX 5700
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Rankine (2003−2005) | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) |
| GPU code name | NV36 | Tahiti |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | no data | reference |
| Release date | 23 October 2003 (20 years ago) | 22 June 2012 (12 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $499 |
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 | no data | 2048 |
| Core clock speed | 425 MHz | no data |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1050 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 82 million | 4,313 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 130 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 25 Watt | 250 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 1.700 | 134.4 |
| Floating-point performance | no data | 4.301 gflops |
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 | no data | PCIe 2.1 x16 |
| Interface | AGP 8x | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 274 mm |
| Width | 1-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 1x 6-pin + 1x 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 | DDR | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 128 MB | 3 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 500 MHz | 1500 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 16 GB/s | 288 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 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | - | + |
| HDMI | - | + |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| CrossFire | - | + |
| FreeSync | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 9.0a | DirectX® 11 |
| Shader Model | no data | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 1.5 (2.1) | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | N/A | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 23 October 2003 | 22 June 2012 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 128 MB | 3 GB |
| Chip lithography | 130 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 25 Watt | 250 Watt |
FX 5700 has 900% lower power consumption.
HD 7970 GHz Edition, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 364.3% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce FX 5700 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
