Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition vs HD 6870 X2
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) |
| GPU code name | Barts | Tahiti |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | no data | reference |
| Release date | 8 July 2011 (14 years ago) | 22 June 2012 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $520 | $499 |
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 | 1120 ×2 | 2048 |
| Core clock speed | 900 MHz | no data |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1050 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,700 million | 4,313 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 250 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 50.40 ×2 | 134.4 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.016 TFLOPS ×2 | 4.301 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 ×2 | 32 |
| TMUs | 56 ×2 | 128 |
| L1 Cache | 224 KB | 512 KB |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB | 768 KB |
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 support | no data | PCIe 2.1 x16 |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 304 mm | 274 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 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 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB ×2 | 3 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit ×2 | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1050 MHz | 1500 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 134.4 GB/s ×2 | 288 GB/s |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | - | + |
| HDMI | + | + |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| CrossFire | - | + |
| FreeSync | - | + |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.2 (11_0) | DirectX® 11 |
| Shader Model | 5.0 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.4 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 8 July 2011 | 22 June 2012 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 3 GB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 250 Watt |
HD 7970 GHz Edition has an age advantage of 11 months, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 20% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6870 X2 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Other comparisons
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
