Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition vs Quadro K5000

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in performance ranking406not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation4.24no data
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)GCN 1.0 (2012−2020)
GPU code nameGK104Tahiti
Market segmentWorkstationDesktop
Designno datareference
Release date17 August 2012 (11 years ago)22 June 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$2,499 $499
Current price$289 (0.1x MSRP)$359 (0.7x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores15362048
Core clock speed706 MHzno data
Boost clock speedno data1050 MHz
Number of transistors3,540 million4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)122 Watt250 Watt
Texture fill rate90.37134.4
Floating-point performance2,169 gflops4,301 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 supportno dataPCIe 2.1 x16
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mm274 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GB3 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed5400 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth172.8 GB/s288 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 Connectors2x DVI, 2x DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinityno data1
HDMIno data+
DisplayPort supportno data-

Supported technologies

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

AppAccelerationno data-
CrossFireno data1
Endurono data-
FreeSyncno data1
HD3Dno data-
PowerTuneno data-
TrueAudiono data-
ZeroCoreno data-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)DirectX® 11
Shader Model5.15.1
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan+no data
Mantleno data-
CUDA3.0no data

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 August 2012 22 June 2012
Cost $2499 $499
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 3 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 122 Watt 250 Watt

We couldn't decide between Quadro K5000 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Quadro K5000 is a workstation graphics card while Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is a desktop one.


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

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NVIDIA Quadro K5000
Quadro K5000
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition
Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

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Community ratings

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3.8 91 vote

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4.1 47 votes

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Questions & comments

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