Radeon HD 7970 vs HD 7950

Place in performance ranking	367	351
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Value for money	1.34	4.00
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2012−2020)	GCN (2011−2017)
GPU code name	Tahiti	Tahiti XT
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	reference
Release date	31 January 2012 (12 years old)	22 December 2011 (12 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$449	$549
Current price	$431 (1x MSRP)	$89 (0.2x MSRP)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 7970 has 199% better value for money than HD 7950.

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	1792	2048
Compute units	28	no data
Boost clock speed	1250 MHz	925 MHz
Number of transistors	4,313 million	4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	89.60	118.4
Floating-point performance	2,867 gflops	3,789 gflops

Size and 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	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.1 x16
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	267 mm	274 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	6 GB
Memory bus width	384 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth	240 GB/s	264 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

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	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity	1	+
Number of Eyefinity displays	6	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	-	-

Technologies

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

AppAcceleration	+	-
CrossFire	1	1
Enduro	-	-
FreeSync	1	1
HD3D	-	-
PowerTune	+	-
TrueAudio	-	-
ZeroCore	+	-

API support

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

DirectX	DirectX® 11	DirectX® 11
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Mantle	-	-

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 7950 12.30

HD 7970 13.55
+10.2%

HD 7970 outperforms HD 7950 by 10% 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 7950 4764

HD 7970 5248
+10.2%

HD 7970 outperforms HD 7950 by 10% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 7950 7500
+9.3%

HD 7970 6862

HD 7950 outperforms HD 7970 by 9% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

HD 7950 1000
+1.5%

HD 7970 985

HD 7950 outperforms HD 7970 by 2% in Unigine Heaven 4.0.

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	95−100 −10.5%	105 +10.5%
Full HD	80−85 −16.3%	93 +16.3%

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance score	12.30	13.55
Recency	31 January 2012	22 December 2011
Cost	$449	$549
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	6 GB
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	300 Watt