Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition vs GeForce GTX 660M Mac Edition
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 970 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 2.29 | no data |
| Architecture | Kepler (2012−2018) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | GK107 | Blackcomb |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 1 April 2013 (11 years ago) | 25 August 2011 (13 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. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 384 | 960 |
| Core clock speed | 950 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,270 million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 75 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 30.40 | 32.64 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.7296 TFLOPS | 1.306 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 32 |
| TMUs | 32 | 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 | MXM-B (3.0) | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Width | MXM Module | MXM Module |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | None |
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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1250 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 80 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 | No outputs | No outputs |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | N/A |
| CUDA | 3.0 | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 1 April 2013 | 25 August 2011 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 75 Watt |
GTX 660M Mac Edition has an age advantage of 1 year, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 50% lower power consumption.
HD 6970M Mac Edition, on the other hand, has a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 660M Mac Edition and Radeon HD 6970M Mac 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.
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