Radeon RX 590 vs HD 7970 GHz Edition
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | not rated | 208 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 99 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 32.13 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | Polaris (2016−2019) |
| GPU code name | Tahiti | Polaris 30 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | reference | no data |
| Release date | 22 June 2012 (11 years ago) | 15 November 2018 (5 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $499 | $279 |
| Current price | $359 (0.7x MSRP) | $133 (0.5x MSRP) |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 2048 | 2304 |
| Core clock speed | no data | 1469 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1050 MHz | 1545 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 4,313 million | 5,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 175 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 134.4 | 222.5 |
| Floating-point performance | 4,301 gflops | no data |
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 | PCIe 2.1 x16 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 274 mm | 241 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-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 | 3 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1500 MHz | 8000 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 288 GB/s | 256.0 GB/s |
| Shared memory | no data | - |
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 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | 1 | no data |
| HDMI | + | + |
| DisplayPort support | - | no data |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| AppAcceleration | - | no data |
| CrossFire | 1 | no data |
| Enduro | - | no data |
| FreeSync | 1 | + |
| HD3D | - | no data |
| PowerTune | - | no data |
| TrueAudio | - | no data |
| ZeroCore | - | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | DirectX® 11 | 12 (12_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.4 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | no data | 1.2.131 |
| Mantle | - | no data |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 22 June 2012 | 15 November 2018 |
| Cost | $499 | $279 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 8 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 175 Watt |
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and Radeon RX 590. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
