Radeon HD 6870 X2 vs GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 114 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 8.16 | no data |
| Architecture | Maxwell (2014−2017) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | N16E-GXX SLI | Barts |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 22 September 2015 (9 years ago) | 8 July 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $520 |
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 | 4096 | 1120 |
| Core clock speed | 1126 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1228 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 10400 Million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 330 Watt | 300 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | no data | 50.40 |
| Floating-point processing power | no data | 2.016 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | no data | 32 |
| TMUs | no data | 56 |
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 | no data | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 304 mm |
| Width | no data | 2-slot |
| 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 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2x 8 GB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 3500 MHz | 1050 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | no data | 134.4 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
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 data | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort |
| HDMI | - | + |
| G-SYNC support | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12_1 | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | no data | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | no data | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | no data | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | - | N/A |
| CUDA | + | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 22 September 2015 | 8 July 2011 |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 330 Watt | 300 Watt |
GTX 980 SLI Mobile has an age advantage of 4 years, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.
HD 6870 X2, on the other hand, has 10% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile and Radeon HD 6870 X2. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile is a notebook card while Radeon HD 6870 X2 is a desktop one.
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.
