Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs HD 6970M

Place in performance ranking	557	7
Place by popularity	not in top-100	54
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	1.93	27.59
Architecture	Terascale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 3
GPU code name	Blackcomb XT	Navi 31 XTX
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	6 January 2011 (13 years ago)	3 November 2022 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$999
Current price	$257	$859 (0.9x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 7900 XTX has 1330% better value for money than HD 6970M.

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 cores	960	6144
Core clock speed	680 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	no data	2270 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75-100 Watt	355 Watt
Texture fill rate	32.64	959.6
Floating-point performance	1,305.6 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon RX 7900 XTX 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	287 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	2x 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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	20000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	960.0 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 HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	no data	+

API compatibility

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	6.7
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.3

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

RX 7900 XTX 80.02
+1266%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 6970M by 1266% 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

RX 7900 XTX 30970
+1264%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 6970M by 1264% 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

RX 7900 XTX 148746
+1150%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 6970M by 1150% 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

RX 7900 XTX 83322
+2856%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 6970M by 2856% 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 −1246%	700−750 +1246%
Full HD	51 −394%	252 +394%
1440p	12−14 −1375%	177 +1375%
4K	8−9 −1338%	115 +1338%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

10−11

−2320%

242
+2320%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −1409%	166 +1409%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −4617%	283 +4617%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −844%	170−180 +844%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 −889%	170−180 +889%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −2210%	231 +2210%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1531%	212 +1531%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1107%	169 +1107%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1679%	338 +1679%
Hitman 3	14−16 −1457%	210−220 +1457%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1973%	228 +1973%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −1145%	130−140 +1145%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −2200%	322 +2200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −1525%	130−140 +1525%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −1273%	151 +1273%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −3917%	241 +3917%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −844%	170−180 +844%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 −889%	170−180 +889%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −1980%	208 +1980%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1477%	205 +1477%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −1057%	162 +1057%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1637%	330 +1637%
Hitman 3	14−16 −1457%	210−220 +1457%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1818%	211 +1818%
Metro Exodus	8−9 −2888%	239 +2888%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −1145%	130−140 +1145%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −2086%	306 +2086%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −4442%	545 +4442%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −1525%	130−140 +1525%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 −1118%	134 +1118%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −3400%	210 +3400%
Battlefield 5	18−20 −844%	170−180 +844%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 −1890%	199 +1890%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −1354%	189 +1354%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −943%	146 +943%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −1453%	295 +1453%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −2383%	298 +2383%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −1525%	130−140 +1525%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −1533%	140−150 +1533%
Hitman 3	10−11 −1750%	180−190 +1750%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −1575%	201 +1575%
Metro Exodus	4−5 −3925%	161 +3925%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 −1975%	80−85 +1975%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 −2556%	239 +2556%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −3200%	132 +3200%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	171
Battlefield 5	3−4 −5000%	150−160 +5000%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −4600%	141 +4600%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −1978%	187 +1978%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −2333%	146 +2333%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 −3525%	290 +3525%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 −4660%	238 +4660%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −8900%	90−95 +8900%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −2225%	90−95 +2225%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2140%	110−120 +2140%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −713%	65 +713%
Metro Exodus	0−1	108
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −1767%	55−60 +1767%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	2−3 −6600%	134 +6600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −9000%	182 +9000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −3567%	110 +3567%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −5250%	107 +5250%
Battlefield 5	1−2 −11000%	110−120 +11000%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	71
Far Cry 5	5−6 −3080%	159 +3080%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 −1650%	140 +1650%
Forza Horizon 4	5−6 −4440%	227 +4440%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −5300%	50−55 +5300%

This is how HD 6970M and RX 7900 XTX compete in popular games:

RX 7900 XTX is 1246% faster than HD 6970M in 900p
RX 7900 XTX is 394% faster than HD 6970M in 1080p
RX 7900 XTX is 1375% faster than HD 6970M in 1440p
RX 7900 XTX is 1338% faster than HD 6970M in 4K

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

in Battlefield 5, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 7900 XTX is 11000% faster than the HD 6970M.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RX 7900 XTX surpassed HD 6970M in all 65 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.86	80.02
Recency	6 January 2011	3 November 2022
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	355 Watt