Radeon HD 7970 vs GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile

Place in the ranking	148	378
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	2.38
Power efficiency	20.97	3.78
Architecture	Turing (2018−2022)	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code name	TU106B	Tahiti
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Design	no data	reference
Release date	29 January 2019 (5 years ago)	22 December 2011 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$549

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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	2304	2048
Core clock speed	1305 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	1485 MHz	925 MHz
Number of transistors	10,800 million	4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology	12 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	115 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	213.8	118.4
Floating-point processing power	6.843 TFLOPS	3.789 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	32
TMUs	144	128
Tensor Cores	288	no data
Ray Tracing Cores	36	no data

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
Bus support	no data	PCIe 2.1 x16
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	no data	274 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	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	GDDR6	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	6 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1750 MHz	1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth	448.0 GB/s	264 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 outputs	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity	-	+
HDMI	-	+
G-SYNC support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire	-	+
FreeSync	-	+
VR Ready	+	no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_1)	DirectX® 11
Shader Model	6.5	5.1
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.2.131	-
CUDA	7.5	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

RTX 2070 Mobile 34.69
+155%

HD 7970 13.60

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.

RTX 2070 Mobile 26005
+235%

HD 7970 7770

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.

RTX 2070 Mobile 64151
+159%

HD 7970 24757

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

RTX 2070 Mobile 20392
+197%

HD 7970 6862

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

RTX 2070 Mobile 123004
+181%

HD 7970 43795

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	260−270 +148%	105 −148%
Full HD	119 +29.3%	92 −29.3%
1440p	73 +170%	27−30 −170%
4K	45 +181%	16−18 −181%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	5.97
1440p	no data	20.33
4K	no data	34.31

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

50−55
+157%

21−24

−157%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	100 +223%	30−35 −223%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	81 +268%	21−24 −268%
Battlefield 5	142 +223%	40−45 −223%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	106 +293%	27−30 −293%
Cyberpunk 2077	50−55 +157%	21−24 −157%
Far Cry 5	125 +291%	30−35 −291%
Far Cry New Dawn	127 +243%	35−40 −243%
Forza Horizon 4	382 +329%	85−90 −329%
Hitman 3	100 +285%	24−27 −285%
Horizon Zero Dawn	234 +234%	70−75 −234%
Metro Exodus	143 +211%	45−50 −211%
Red Dead Redemption 2	106 +179%	35−40 −179%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	186 +323%	40−45 −323%
Watch Dogs: Legion	223 +201%	70−75 −201%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	112 +261%	30−35 −261%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	69 +214%	21−24 −214%
Battlefield 5	127 +189%	40−45 −189%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	94 +248%	27−30 −248%
Cyberpunk 2077	50−55 +157%	21−24 −157%
Far Cry 5	97 +203%	30−35 −203%
Far Cry New Dawn	93 +151%	35−40 −151%
Forza Horizon 4	287 +222%	85−90 −222%
Hitman 3	96 +269%	24−27 −269%
Horizon Zero Dawn	230 +229%	70−75 −229%
Metro Exodus	130 +183%	45−50 −183%
Red Dead Redemption 2	86 +126%	35−40 −126%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	149 +239%	40−45 −239%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	200 +506%	30−35 −506%
Watch Dogs: Legion	211 +185%	70−75 −185%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	58 +87.1%	30−35 −87.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	59 +168%	21−24 −168%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	69 +156%	27−30 −156%
Cyberpunk 2077	50−55 +157%	21−24 −157%
Far Cry 5	73 +128%	30−35 −128%
Forza Horizon 4	94 +5.6%	85−90 −5.6%
Hitman 3	80 +208%	24−27 −208%
Horizon Zero Dawn	114 +62.9%	70−75 −62.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	125 +184%	40−45 −184%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	74 +124%	30−35 −124%
Watch Dogs: Legion	56 −32.1%	70−75 +32.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

92
+142%

35−40

−142%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	78 +200%	24−27 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	64 +205%	21−24 −205%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	48 +243%	14−16 −243%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	47 +370%	10−11 −370%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	52 +271%	14−16 −271%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +229%	7−8 −229%
Far Cry 5	52 +225%	16−18 −225%
Forza Horizon 4	277 +301%	65−70 −301%
Hitman 3	56 +250%	16−18 −250%
Horizon Zero Dawn	87 +211%	27−30 −211%
Metro Exodus	74 +222%	21−24 −222%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70−75 +222%	21−24 −222%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 +207%	14−16 −207%
Watch Dogs: Legion	206 +145%	80−85 −145%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

73
+232%

21−24

−232%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	39 +200%	12−14 −200%
Far Cry New Dawn	36 +260%	10−11 −260%
Hitman 3	36 +300%	9−10 −300%
Horizon Zero Dawn	101 +53%	65−70 −53%
Metro Exodus	45 +246%	12−14 −246%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	50 +317%	12−14 −317%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	31 +288%	8−9 −288%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	28 +367%	6−7 −367%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	29 +314%	7−8 −314%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 +350%	2−3 −350%
Far Cry 5	26 +271%	7−8 −271%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 +144%	18−20 −144%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +250%	12−14 −250%
Watch Dogs: Legion	23 +360%	5−6 −360%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

37
+208%

12−14

−208%

This is how RTX 2070 Mobile and HD 7970 compete in popular games:

RTX 2070 Mobile is 148% faster in 900p
RTX 2070 Mobile is 29% faster in 1080p
RTX 2070 Mobile is 170% faster in 1440p
RTX 2070 Mobile is 181% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 2070 Mobile is 506% faster.
in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 7970 is 32% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 2070 Mobile is ahead in 71 test (99%)
HD 7970 is ahead in 1 test (1%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	34.69	13.60
Recency	29 January 2019	22 December 2011
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	6 GB
Chip lithography	12 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	115 Watt	300 Watt

RTX 2070 Mobile has a 155.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 133.3% more advanced lithography process, and 160.9% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7970 in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile is a notebook card while Radeon HD 7970 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.