GeForce RTX 4090 vs Radeon HD 6970M

Place in performance ranking	556	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	7
Value for money	1.92	15.02
Architecture	Terascale 2 (2009−2015)	Ada Lovelace
GPU code name	Blackcomb XT	AD102-300-A1
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	6 January 2011 (13 years ago)	20 September 2022 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,599
Current price	$257	$1756 (1.1x MSRP)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 4090 has 682% better value for money than HD 6970M.

Technical specs

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 cores	960	16384
Core clock speed	680 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75-100 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	32.64	1,290
Floating-point performance	1,305.6 gflops	no data

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 6970M and GeForce RTX 4090 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	large	no data
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 16-pin

Memory

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	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	21000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	1,008 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Video outputs and ports

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 HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	no data	+

API support

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.6
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	no data	8.9

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

HD 6970M 5.86

RTX 4090 100.00
+1606%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 6970M by 1606% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

HD 6970M 2270

RTX 4090 38718
+1606%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 6970M by 1606% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 6970M 11898

RTX 4090 137170
+1053%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 6970M by 1053% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 6970M 2819

RTX 4090 104937
+3623%

GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms Radeon HD 6970M by 3623% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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	52 −1535%	850−900 +1535%
Full HD	51 −420%	265 +420%
1440p	12−14 −1667%	212 +1667%
4K	8−9 −1775%	150 +1775%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

10−11

−2150%

225
+2150%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −2036%	235 +2036%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −4683%	287 +4683%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −972%	190−200 +972%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 −889%	170−180 +889%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −2120%	222 +2120%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1508%	209 +1508%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1171%	178 +1171%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1542%	300−350 +1542%
Hitman 3	14−16 −1464%	210−220 +1464%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −2400%	275 +2400%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −1555%	180−190 +1555%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −2000%	294 +2000%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −2250%	188 +2250%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −1909%	221 +1909%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −4033%	248 +4033%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −972%	190−200 +972%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 −889%	170−180 +889%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −2040%	214 +2040%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1446%	201 +1446%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1121%	171 +1121%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1542%	300−350 +1542%
Hitman 3	14−16 −1464%	210−220 +1464%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −2173%	250 +2173%
Metro Exodus	8−9 −2725%	226 +2725%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −1555%	180−190 +1555%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −1957%	288 +1957%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −4675%	573 +4675%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −2063%	173 +2063%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −1527%	179 +1527%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −3567%	220 +3567%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −972%	190−200 +972%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −2000%	210 +2000%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1338%	187 +1338%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1000%	154 +1000%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1542%	300−350 +1542%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −2442%	305 +2442%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −1813%	153 +1813%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −1556%	140−150 +1556%
Hitman 3	10−11 −2030%	210−220 +2030%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −1875%	237 +1875%
Metro Exodus	4−5 −4325%	177 +4325%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −2225%	90−95 +2225%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 −2911%	271 +2911%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −3775%	155 +3775%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −18200%	183 +18200%
Battlefield 5	3−4 −6433%	190−200 +6433%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −5033%	154 +5033%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −1967%	186 +1967%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −2433%	152 +2433%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −3450%	280−290 +3450%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 −5260%	268 +5260%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −15100%	152 +15100%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −2300%	95−100 +2300%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2460%	120−130 +2460%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −2238%	187 +2238%
Metro Exodus	0−1	137
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −2033%	60−65 +2033%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	2−3 −9200%	186 +9200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −13900%	280 +13900%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −3900%	120 +3900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −5900%	120 +5900%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −13500%	130−140 +13500%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	80
Far Cry 5	5−6 −3360%	173 +3360%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 −1713%	145 +1713%
Forza Horizon 4	5−6 −5000%	250−260 +5000%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −11600%	117 +11600%

This is how HD 6970M and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 1535% faster than HD 6970M in 900p
RTX 4090 is 420% faster than HD 6970M in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 1667% faster than HD 6970M in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 1775% faster than HD 6970M in 4K

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

in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 4090 is 18200% faster than the HD 6970M.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RTX 4090 surpassed HD 6970M in all 66 of our tests.

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance score	5.86	100.00
Recency	6 January 2011	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	450 Watt