NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI vs AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

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General info

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

Place in performance ranking309299
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money30.3827.66
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)Kepler (2012−2018)
GPU code nameWimbledon XTN13E-GTX
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 May 2012 (11 years old)4 June 2012 (11 years old)
Current price$126 $149
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 7970M Crossfire has 10% better value for money than GTX 680M SLI.

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 cores25602688
Core clock speed850 MHz720 MHz
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Wattno data

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire and GeForce GTX 680M SLI compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. 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 sizelargelarge
SLI optionsno data+

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amountno data2x 4 GB
Memory bus width2x 256 Bit2x 256 Bit
Memory clock speed4800 MHz3600 MHz
Shared memory--

Technologies

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

Optimusno data+

API support

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

DirectX11.111
CUDAno 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 7970M Crossfire
15.97

GeForce GTX 680M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire by 4% in our combined benchmark results.


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 7970M Crossfire 31127
GTX 680M SLI 32635
+4.8%

GeForce GTX 680M SLI outperforms Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire by 5% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 7970M Crossfire 11119
+1.5%
GTX 680M SLI 10952

Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire outperforms GeForce GTX 680M SLI by 2% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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:

900p132
−0.8%
133
+0.8%
Full HD102
+4.1%
98
−4.1%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
−3%
30−35
+3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
−3.7%
27−30
+3.7%
Battlefield 5 50−55
−3.7%
55−60
+3.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
−4.9%
40−45
+4.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%
Far Cry 5 40−45
−4.8%
40−45
+4.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
−4.7%
45−50
+4.7%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
−1.8%
55−60
+1.8%
Hitman 3 40−45
−4.5%
45−50
+4.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−35
−6.1%
35−40
+6.1%
Red Dead Redemption 2 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 30−35
−2.9%
35−40
+2.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−33
−3.3%
30−35
+3.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
−3%
30−35
+3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
−3.7%
27−30
+3.7%
Battlefield 5 50−55
−3.7%
55−60
+3.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
−4.9%
40−45
+4.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%
Far Cry 5 40−45
−4.8%
40−45
+4.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
−4.7%
45−50
+4.7%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
−1.8%
55−60
+1.8%
Hitman 3 40−45
−4.5%
45−50
+4.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−35
−6.1%
35−40
+6.1%
Metro Exodus 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%
Red Dead Redemption 2 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 30−35
−2.9%
35−40
+2.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
−2.9%
35−40
+2.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−33
−3.3%
30−35
+3.3%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
−3%
30−35
+3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
−3.7%
27−30
+3.7%
Battlefield 5 50−55
−3.7%
55−60
+3.7%
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%
Far Cry 5 40−45
−4.8%
40−45
+4.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
−4.7%
45−50
+4.7%
Forza Horizon 4 55−60
−1.8%
55−60
+1.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35
−2.9%
35−40
+2.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−33
−3.3%
30−35
+3.3%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
−4.3%
24−27
+4.3%
Hitman 3 24−27
−4%
24−27
+4%
Horizon Zero Dawn 21−24
−4.5%
21−24
+4.5%
Metro Exodus 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22
−5%
21−24
+5%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
−7.7%
14−16
+7.7%
Battlefield 5 30−35
−5.9%
35−40
+5.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Far Cry 5 24−27
−3.8%
27−30
+3.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−33
−3.3%
30−35
+3.3%
Forza Horizon 4 30−33
−3.3%
30−35
+3.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
−5.3%
20−22
+5.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−11
−10%
10−12
+10%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Hitman 3 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
−9.1%
12−14
+9.1%
Metro Exodus 8−9
−12.5%
9−10
+12.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
−6.7%
16−18
+6.7%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−11
+0%
10−11
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Battlefield 5 16−18
−5.9%
18−20
+5.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 20−22
−5%
21−24
+5%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
−16.7%
7−8
+16.7%

This is how HD 7970M Crossfire and GTX 680M SLI compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • GTX 680M SLI is 0.8% faster than HD 7970M Crossfire

1080p resolution:

  • HD 7970M Crossfire is 4.1% faster than GTX 680M SLI

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

  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 680M SLI is 16.7% faster than the HD 7970M Crossfire.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTX 680M SLI is ahead in 54 tests (79%)
  • there's a draw in 14 tests (21%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 15.97 16.56
Recency 1 May 2012 4 June 2012
Pipelines / CUDA cores 2560 2688

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire and GeForce GTX 680M SLI. The differences in performance seem too small.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Cast your own vote

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


AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
GeForce GTX 680M SLI

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User ratings: view and submit

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2.1 19 votes

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4.7 3 votes

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Questions and comments

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