GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB vs Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

Place in the ranking	335	105
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	5.53	16.21
Architecture	GCN (2012−2015)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Wimbledon XT	GA106
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 May 2012 (12 years ago)	12 October 2022 (2 years ago)

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	2560	3584
Core clock speed	850 MHz	1320 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1777 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	12,000 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	170 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	199.0
Floating-point processing power	no data	12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	48
TMUs	no data	112
Tensor Cores	no data	112
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	28

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 size	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	242 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 12-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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	no data	8 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	240.0 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	no data	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.7
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	-	1.3
CUDA	-	8.6

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	132 −127%	300−350 +127%
Full HD	95 −142%	230−240 +142%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

24−27

−140%

60−65
+140%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −136%	85−90 +136%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −131%	60−65 +131%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −145%	130−140 +145%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −134%	75−80 +134%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −140%	60−65 +140%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −137%	90−95 +137%
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45 −127%	100−105 +127%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −143%	250−260 +143%
Hitman 3	30−35 −142%	75−80 +142%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%
Metro Exodus	55−60 −136%	130−140 +136%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 −127%	100−105 +127%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −145%	130−140 +145%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −136%	85−90 +136%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −131%	60−65 +131%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −145%	130−140 +145%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −134%	75−80 +134%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −140%	60−65 +140%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −137%	90−95 +137%
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45 −127%	100−105 +127%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −143%	250−260 +143%
Hitman 3	30−35 −142%	75−80 +142%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%
Metro Exodus	55−60 −136%	130−140 +136%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 −127%	100−105 +127%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −145%	130−140 +145%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	35−40 −137%	90−95 +137%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −136%	85−90 +136%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −131%	60−65 +131%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −134%	75−80 +134%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −140%	60−65 +140%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −137%	90−95 +137%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −143%	250−260 +143%
Hitman 3	30−35 −142%	75−80 +142%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −145%	130−140 +145%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	35−40 −137%	90−95 +137%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45
−127%

100−105

+127%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −142%	75−80 +142%
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27 −140%	60−65 +140%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16−18 −119%	35−40 +119%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 −131%	30−33 +131%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	16−18 −135%	40−45 +135%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −133%	21−24 +133%
Far Cry 5	18−20 −137%	45−50 +137%
Forza Horizon 4	85−90 −144%	210−220 +144%
Hitman 3	18−20 −137%	45−50 +137%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −142%	80−85 +142%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −141%	70−75 +141%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−33 −133%	70−75 +133%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −135%	40−45 +135%
Watch Dogs: Legion	95−100 −145%	240−250 +145%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

24−27

−131%

60−65
+131%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −119%	35−40 +119%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 −125%	27−30 +125%
Hitman 3	12−14 −125%	27−30 +125%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −147%	200−210 +147%
Metro Exodus	16−18 −119%	35−40 +119%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −133%	35−40 +133%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 −133%	21−24 +133%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9 −125%	18−20 +125%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −125%	18−20 +125%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −133%	7−8 +133%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −133%	21−24 +133%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −127%	50−55 +127%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 −119%	35−40 +119%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 −133%	14−16 +133%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

−114%

30−33
+114%

This is how HD 7970M Crossfire and RTX 3060 8 GB compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 8 GB is 127% faster in 900p
RTX 3060 8 GB is 142% faster in 1080p

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	16.00	39.87
Recency	1 May 2012	12 October 2022
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	170 Watt

RTX 3060 8 GB has a 149.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 17.6% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB is a desktop one.

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