Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire vs GeForce GTX 860M SLI

Place in performance ranking	369	448
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	5.00	7.57
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)	Terascale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	no data	Blackcomb XT
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	12 March 2014 (10 years ago)	6 January 2011 (13 years ago)
Current price	$489	$170

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 6970M Crossfire has 51% better value for money than GTX 860M SLI.

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	1280	1920
Core clock speed	1029 MHz	680 MHz
Number of transistors	2x 1870 Million	2x1700 Million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 860M SLI and Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	large	large
SLI options	+	no data

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	2x 4 GB	2x2 GB
Memory bus width	2x 128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	5000 MHz	900 MHz
Shared memory	-	-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Optimus

no data

API compatibility

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (FL 11_0)	11
CUDA	+	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 860M SLI 12.44
+36.7%

HD 6970M Crossfire 9.10

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire by 37% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 860M SLI 9840
+77.6%

HD 6970M Crossfire 5542

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire by 78% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 860M SLI 27223
+20.1%

HD 6970M Crossfire 22667

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire by 20% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	120−130 +27.7%	94 −27.7%
Full HD	46 −109%	96 +109%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

18−20

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22	no data
Battlefield 5	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20	no data
Far Cry 5	27−30	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35	no data
Forza Horizon 4	60−65	no data
Hitman 3	24−27	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55	no data
Metro Exodus	40−45	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22	no data
Battlefield 5	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20	no data
Far Cry 5	27−30	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35	no data
Forza Horizon 4	60−65	no data
Hitman 3	24−27	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55	no data
Metro Exodus	40−45	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20	no data
Far Cry 5	27−30	no data
Forza Horizon 4	60−65	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	21−24	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	9−10	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7	no data
Far Cry 5	20−22	no data
Forza Horizon 4	21−24	no data
Hitman 3	14−16	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27	no data
Metro Exodus	20−22	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	7−8	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

20−22

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12−14	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10	no data
Hitman 3	8−9	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3	no data
Far Cry 5	7−8	no data
Forza Horizon 4	16−18	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14	no data
Metro Exodus	12−14	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6	no data