GeForce GTS 250M vs Radeon HD 7970

#ad 
Buy on Amazon
VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 7970 with GeForce GTS 250M, including specs and performance data.

HD 7970
2011
6 GB GDDR5, 300 Watt
11.74
+847%

HD 7970 outperforms GTS 250M by a whopping 847% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking3901008
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.12no data
Power efficiency3.713.50
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)
GPU code nameTahitiGT215
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date22 December 2011 (13 years ago)15 June 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$549 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

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

no data

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 cores204896
Core clock speedno data500 MHz
Boost clock speed925 MHzno data
Number of transistors4,313 million727 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)300 Watt28 Watt
Texture fill rate118.416.00
Floating-point processing power3.789 TFLOPS0.24 TFLOPS
Gigaflopsno data360
ROPs328
TMUs12832

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).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCIe 2.1 x16PCI-E 2.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Length274 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pinno data
SLI options-+
MXM Typeno dataMXM 3.0 Type-B

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount6 GB1 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed1375 MHzUp to 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth264 GB/s51.2 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 Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortHDMIVGALVDSSingle Link DVIDisplayPortDual Link DVI
Eyefinity+-
HDMI++
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
Power managementno data8.0

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1111.1 (10_1)
Shader Model5.14.1
OpenGL4.62.1
OpenCL1.21.1
Vulkan-N/A
CUDA-+

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 7970 11.74
+847%
GTS 250M 1.24

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 7970 5248
+849%
GTS 250M 553

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.

HD 7970 24757
+577%
GTS 250M 3659

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:

900p105
+950%
10−12
−950%
Full HD93
+232%
28
−232%

Cost per frame, $

1080p5.90no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 30−35
+700%
4−5
−700%
Counter-Strike 2 70−75
+914%
7−8
−914%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
+767%
3−4
−767%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 30−35
+700%
4−5
−700%
Battlefield 5 55−60
+2700%
2−3
−2700%
Counter-Strike 2 70−75
+914%
7−8
−914%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
+767%
3−4
−767%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+975%
4−5
−975%
Fortnite 70−75
+1750%
4−5
−1750%
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
+671%
7−8
−671%
Forza Horizon 5 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
+411%
9−10
−411%
Valorant 110−120
+224%
30−35
−224%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 30−35
+700%
4−5
−700%
Battlefield 5 55−60
+2700%
2−3
−2700%
Counter-Strike 2 70−75
+914%
7−8
−914%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 212
+607%
30−33
−607%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
+767%
3−4
−767%
Dota 2 80−85
+394%
16−18
−394%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+975%
4−5
−975%
Fortnite 70−75
+1750%
4−5
−1750%
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
+671%
7−8
−671%
Forza Horizon 5 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%
Grand Theft Auto V 45−50
+4800%
1−2
−4800%
Metro Exodus 24−27
+1200%
2−3
−1200%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
+411%
9−10
−411%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
+467%
6−7
−467%
Valorant 110−120
+224%
30−35
−224%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 55−60
+2700%
2−3
−2700%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
+767%
3−4
−767%
Dota 2 80−85
+394%
16−18
−394%
Far Cry 5 40−45
+975%
4−5
−975%
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
+671%
7−8
−671%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 45−50
+411%
9−10
−411%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
+467%
6−7
−467%
Valorant 110−120
+224%
30−35
−224%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 70−75
+1750%
4−5
−1750%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 24−27 0−1
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 95−100
+1100%
8−9
−1100%
Grand Theft Auto V 20−22
+900%
2−3
−900%
Metro Exodus 14−16
+1400%
1−2
−1400%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 100−110
+731%
12−14
−731%
Valorant 130−140
+2167%
6−7
−2167%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 35−40
+1067%
3−4
−1067%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+1000%
1−2
−1000%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+2700%
1−2
−2700%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+933%
3−4
−933%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
+2000%
1−2
−2000%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 27−30
+1300%
2−3
−1300%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 10−11
+900%
1−2
−900%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9 0−1
Grand Theft Auto V 24−27
+60%
14−16
−60%
Metro Exodus 9−10 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+1600%
1−2
−1600%
Valorant 65−70
+886%
7−8
−886%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
+1700%
1−2
−1700%
Counter-Strike 2 8−9 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 5−6 0−1
Dota 2 45−50
+4500%
1−2
−4500%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+550%
2−3
−550%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
+1000%
2−3
−1000%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 12−14
+500%
2−3
−500%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 12−14
+500%
2−3
−500%

This is how HD 7970 and GTS 250M compete in popular games:

  • HD 7970 is 950% faster in 900p
  • HD 7970 is 232% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Grand Theft Auto V, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the HD 7970 is 4800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, HD 7970 surpassed GTS 250M in all 44 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 11.74 1.24
Recency 22 December 2011 15 June 2009
Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 300 Watt 28 Watt

HD 7970 has a 846.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

GTS 250M, on the other hand, has 971.4% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 7970 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTS 250M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7970 is a desktop card while GeForce GTS 250M is a notebook one.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon HD 7970
Radeon HD 7970
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M
GeForce GTS 250M

Other comparisons

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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


4 310 votes

Rate Radeon HD 7970 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.7 7 votes

Rate GeForce GTS 250M on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can give us your opinion about Radeon HD 7970 or GeForce GTS 250M, agree or disagree with our ratings, or report errors or inaccuracies on the site.