GeForce RTX 4080 vs Radeon HD 6970

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce RTX 4080, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6970
2010
2 GB GDDR5, 550 Watt
7.29

RTX 4080 outperforms HD 6970 by a whopping 1119% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking5484
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation1.0629.09
Power efficiency2.0219.27
ArchitectureTeraScale 3 (2010−2013)Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code nameCaymanAD103
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date14 December 2010 (14 years ago)20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$369 $1,199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

RTX 4080 has 2644% better value for money than HD 6970.

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 cores15369728
Core clock speedno data2205 MHz
Boost clock speed880 MHz2505 MHz
Number of transistors2,640 million45,900 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)550 Watt320 Watt
Texture fill rate84.48761.5
Floating-point processing power2.703 TFLOPS48.74 TFLOPS
ROPs32112
TMUs96304
Tensor Coresno data304
Ray Tracing Coresno data76

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 supportPCIe 2.0 x16no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length267 mm310 mm
Width2-slot3-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin1x 16-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 typeGDDR5GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount2 GB16 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1375 MHz1400 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data716.8 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Eyefinity+-
HDMI++

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.7
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan-1.3
CUDA-8.9
DLSS-+

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.

HD 6970 7.29
RTX 4080 88.85
+1119%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

HD 6970 2835
RTX 4080 34567
+1119%

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.

HD 6970 3470
RTX 4080 57903
+1569%

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:

Full HD18−20
−1200%
234
+1200%
1440p12−14
−1258%
163
+1258%
4K8−9
−1238%
107
+1238%

Cost per frame, $

1080p20.50
−300%
5.12
+300%
1440p30.75
−318%
7.36
+318%
4K46.13
−312%
11.21
+312%
  • RTX 4080 has 300% lower cost per frame in 1080p
  • RTX 4080 has 318% lower cost per frame in 1440p
  • RTX 4080 has 312% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 16−18
−1318%
240−250
+1318%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1357%
200−210
+1357%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
−1550%
231
+1550%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 16−18
−1235%
227
+1235%
Battlefield 5 30−33
−557%
190−200
+557%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1450%
217
+1450%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
−1550%
231
+1550%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−914%
223
+914%
Fortnite 40−45
−619%
300−350
+619%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
−1010%
300−350
+1010%
Forza Horizon 5 16−18
−1365%
249
+1365%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 24−27
−608%
170−180
+608%
Valorant 70−75
−645%
550−600
+645%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 16−18
−1106%
205
+1106%
Battlefield 5 30−33
−557%
190−200
+557%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1343%
202
+1343%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 110−120
−148%
270−280
+148%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
−1400%
210
+1400%
Dota 2 50−55
−361%
249
+361%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−891%
218
+891%
Fortnite 40−45
−619%
300−350
+619%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
−1010%
300−350
+1010%
Forza Horizon 5 16−18
−1306%
239
+1306%
Grand Theft Auto V 24−27
−612%
178
+612%
Metro Exodus 12−14
−1538%
213
+1538%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 24−27
−608%
170−180
+608%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
−2928%
545
+2928%
Valorant 70−75
−645%
550−600
+645%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 30−33
−557%
190−200
+557%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1114%
170
+1114%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
−1257%
190
+1257%
Dota 2 50−55
−331%
233
+331%
Far Cry 5 21−24
−827%
204
+827%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
−1010%
300−350
+1010%
Forza Horizon 5 16−18
−1076%
200−210
+1076%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 24−27
−608%
170−180
+608%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
−1339%
259
+1339%
Valorant 70−75
−677%
575
+677%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 40−45
−619%
300−350
+619%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 9−10
−1322%
120−130
+1322%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 50−55
−874%
500−550
+874%
Grand Theft Auto V 9−10
−1700%
162
+1700%
Metro Exodus 7−8
−2100%
154
+2100%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 35−40
−349%
170−180
+349%
Valorant 75−80
−522%
450−500
+522%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 12−14
−1408%
190−200
+1408%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
−2050%
129
+2050%
Far Cry 5 14−16
−1336%
201
+1336%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
−1813%
300−350
+1813%
Forza Horizon 5 10−12
−1082%
130−140
+1082%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12
−1636%
191
+1636%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 14−16
−979%
150−160
+979%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 6−7
−1400%
90−95
+1400%
Counter-Strike 2 1−2
−8100%
82
+8100%
Grand Theft Auto V 18−20
−928%
185
+928%
Metro Exodus 2−3
−5100%
104
+5100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 5−6
−3640%
187
+3640%
Valorant 35−40
−849%
300−350
+849%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
−2167%
130−140
+2167%
Counter-Strike 2 1−2
−2800%
29
+2800%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
−3050%
63
+3050%
Dota 2 24−27
−808%
227
+808%
Far Cry 5 7−8
−1900%
140
+1900%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−2655%
300−350
+2655%
Forza Horizon 5 4−5
−1025%
45−50
+1025%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 7−8
−1271%
95−100
+1271%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 7−8
−1029%
75−80
+1029%

This is how HD 6970 and RTX 4080 compete in popular games:

  • RTX 4080 is 1200% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 4080 is 1258% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 4080 is 1238% faster in 4K

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

  • in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 4080 is 8100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, RTX 4080 surpassed HD 6970 in all 64 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 7.29 88.85
Recency 14 December 2010 20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 16 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 5 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 550 Watt 320 Watt

RTX 4080 has a 1118.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 700% more advanced lithography process, and 71.9% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 4080 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6970 in performance tests.

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AMD Radeon HD 6970
Radeon HD 6970
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
GeForce RTX 4080

Other comparisons

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Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.7 158 votes

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4.1 4759 votes

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