GeForce GTX 860M SLI vs Radeon HD 7970

Place in performance ranking	355	369
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	4.00	4.99
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code name	Tahiti XT	no data
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	22 December 2011 (12 years ago)	12 March 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	no data
Current price	$89 (0.2x MSRP)	$489

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 860M SLI has 25% better value for money than HD 7970.

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	1280
Core clock speed	no data	1029 MHz
Boost clock speed	925 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	4,313 million	2x 1870 Million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	300 Watt	120 Watt
Texture fill rate	118.4	no data
Floating-point performance	3,789 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 860M SLI 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	no data	large
Bus support	PCIe 2.1 x16	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	no data
Length	274 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	no data
SLI options	no data	+

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	2x 4 GB
Memory bus width	384 Bit	2x 128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1375 MHz	5000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	264 GB/s	no data
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	no data
Eyefinity	+	no data
HDMI	+	no data
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	no data
HD3D	-	no data
PowerTune	-	no data
TrueAudio	-	no data
ZeroCore	-	no data
Optimus	no data	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 11	12 (FL 11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	no data
OpenGL	4.6	no data
OpenCL	1.2	no data
Mantle	-	no data
CUDA	no data	+

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 7970 13.59
+9.2%

GTX 860M SLI 12.44

Radeon HD 7970 outperforms GeForce GTX 860M SLI by 9% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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 7970 7770

GTX 860M SLI 9840
+26.6%

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 7970 by 27% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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 7970 24757

GTX 860M SLI 27223
+10%

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 7970 by 10% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 7970 6862
+15.5%

GTX 860M SLI 5941

Radeon HD 7970 outperforms GeForce GTX 860M SLI by 16% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 7970 43795
+5.7%

GTX 860M SLI 41434

Radeon HD 7970 outperforms GeForce GTX 860M SLI by 6% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

HD 7970 78

GTX 860M SLI 83
+6.4%

GeForce GTX 860M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 7970 by 6% in Unigine Heaven 3.0.

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	105 +10.5%	95−100 −10.5%
Full HD	103 +124%	46 −124%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

21−24

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24	no data
Battlefield 5	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24	no data
Far Cry 5	30−35	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40	no data
Forza Horizon 4	65−70	no data
Hitman 3	24−27	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60	no data
Metro Exodus	45−50	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24	no data
Battlefield 5	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24	no data
Far Cry 5	30−35	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40	no data
Forza Horizon 4	65−70	no data
Hitman 3	24−27	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60	no data
Metro Exodus	45−50	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	27−30	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24	no data
Far Cry 5	30−35	no data
Forza Horizon 4	65−70	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	27−30	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	16−18	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8	no data
Far Cry 5	21−24	no data
Forza Horizon 4	24−27	no data
Hitman 3	16−18	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30	no data
Metro Exodus	21−24	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12−14	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11	no data
Hitman 3	9−10	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3	no data
Far Cry 5	7−8	no data
Forza Horizon 4	18−20	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16	no data
Metro Exodus	12−14	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6	no data