GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104 vs Radeon HD 7970
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 375 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 2.38 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 3.77 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | Pascal (2016−2021) |
| GPU code name | Tahiti | GP104 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | reference | no data |
| Release date | 22 December 2011 (12 years ago) | 25 December 2016 (7 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $549 | $199 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 cores | 2048 | 1152 |
| Core clock speed | no data | 1506 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 925 MHz | 1708 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 4,313 million | 7,200 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 16 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 120 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 118.4 | 123.0 |
| Floating-point processing power | 3.789 TFLOPS | 3.935 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 48 |
| TMUs | 128 | 72 |
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 | 250 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 1x 6-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 | 6 GB | 3 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1375 MHz | 2002 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 264 GB/s | 192.2 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 Connectors | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | + | - |
| HDMI | + | + |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| CrossFire | + | - |
| FreeSync | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | DirectX® 11 | 12 (12_1) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.4 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | - | 1.2.131 |
| CUDA | - | 6.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 22 December 2011 | 25 December 2016 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 6 GB | 3 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 16 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 120 Watt |
HD 7970 has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.
GTX 1060 3 GB GP104, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 5 years, a 75% more advanced lithography process, and 150% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104. 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.
