GeForce GTX 970M vs Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire and GeForce GTX 970M, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 8970M Crossfire
2012
200 Watt
18.64
+25.7%

HD 8970M Crossfire outperforms GTX 970M by a significant 26% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking297354
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency6.4012.57
ArchitectureGCN (2012−2015)Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameNeptune CFGM204
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date1 May 2012 (12 years ago)7 October 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$2,560.89

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores25601280
Core clock speed850 MHz924 MHz
Boost clock speed900 MHz1038 MHz
Number of transistorsno data5,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Wattunknown
Texture fill rateno data83.04
Floating-point processing powerno data2.657 TFLOPS
ROPsno data48
TMUsno data80

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 sizelargelarge
Bus supportno dataPCI Express 3.0
Interfaceno dataMXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone
SLI options-+

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 amountno data3 GB
Memory bus width2x 256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed4800 MHz2500 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data120 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 Connectorsno dataNo outputs
VGA аnalog display supportno data+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportno data+
HDMI-+
G-SYNC support-+

Supported technologies

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

GameStream-+
GeForce ShadowPlay-+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorks-+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder-+
Optimus-+
BatteryBoost-+
Ansel-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.112 (12_1)
Shader Modelno data6.4
OpenGLno data4.5
OpenCLno data1.1
Vulkan-1.1.126
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. 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 8970M Crossfire 18.64
+25.7%
GTX 970M 14.83

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.

HD 8970M Crossfire 12424
+25.8%
GTX 970M 9878

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 8970M Crossfire 34215
+18.6%
GTX 970M 28845

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.

HD 8970M Crossfire 10354
+38.7%
GTX 970M 7463

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.

HD 8970M Crossfire 70114
+36.8%
GTX 970M 51247

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

HD 8970M Crossfire 269832
GTX 970M 274626
+1.8%

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.

HD 8970M Crossfire 123
+31.8%
GTX 970M 93

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:

900p170−180
+25%
136
−25%
Full HD67
+19.6%
56
−19.6%
1440p30−35
+11.1%
27
−11.1%
4K24−27
+14.3%
21
−14.3%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data45.73
1440pno data94.85
4Kno data121.95

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 30−33
+30.4%
21−24
−30.4%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+2.4%
42
−2.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+33.3%
24−27
−33.3%
Battlefield 5 60−65
+21.2%
52
−21.2%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+30%
30−33
−30%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−33
+30.4%
21−24
−30.4%
Far Cry 5 45−50
−11.1%
50
+11.1%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+6.3%
48
−6.3%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
−21%
144
+21%
Hitman 3 35−40
+32.1%
27−30
−32.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+22.4%
75−80
−22.4%
Metro Exodus 65−70
+24.5%
53
−24.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+24.4%
40−45
−24.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 60−65
−28.6%
81
+28.6%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+14.1%
75−80
−14.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
−23.3%
53
+23.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+33.3%
24−27
−33.3%
Battlefield 5 60−65
+43.2%
44
−43.2%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+30%
30−33
−30%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−33
+30.4%
21−24
−30.4%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+9.8%
41
−9.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55
+37.8%
37
−37.8%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
−10.1%
131
+10.1%
Hitman 3 35−40
+32.1%
27−30
−32.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+22.4%
75−80
−22.4%
Metro Exodus 65−70
+50%
44
−50%
Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+24.4%
40−45
−24.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 60−65
+31.3%
45−50
−31.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
−135%
101
+135%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+14.1%
75−80
−14.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+105%
21
−105%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 30−35
+33.3%
24−27
−33.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+30%
30−33
−30%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−33
+30.4%
21−24
−30.4%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+55.2%
29
−55.2%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+231%
36
−231%
Hitman 3 35−40
+32.1%
27−30
−32.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 90−95
+22.4%
75−80
−22.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 60−65
+31.3%
45−50
−31.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+65.4%
26
−65.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90
+14.1%
75−80
−14.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 50−55
+24.4%
40−45
−24.4%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 35−40
+42.3%
26
−42.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 27−30
+16%
25
−16%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
+11.8%
17
−11.8%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 16−18
+41.7%
12−14
−41.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
+31.3%
16−18
−31.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
+37.5%
8−9
−37.5%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+15.8%
19
−15.8%
Forza Horizon 4 100−110
+31.3%
80
−31.3%
Hitman 3 21−24
+22.2%
18−20
−22.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
+30%
30−33
−30%
Metro Exodus 35−40
+40%
25
−40%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+40.7%
27−30
−40.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
+37.5%
16−18
−37.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+25.3%
90−95
−25.3%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+33.3%
24−27
−33.3%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 18−20
+58.3%
12
−58.3%
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
+7.7%
13
−7.7%
Hitman 3 14−16
+27.3%
10−12
−27.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100
+32.4%
70−75
−32.4%
Metro Exodus 20−22
+42.9%
14
−42.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
+18.8%
16
−18.8%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
+22.2%
9−10
−22.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Far Cry 5 10−11
+25%
8
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
+333%
6
−333%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 21−24
+50%
14−16
−50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+30.8%
12−14
−30.8%

This is how HD 8970M Crossfire and GTX 970M compete in popular games:

  • HD 8970M Crossfire is 25% faster in 900p
  • HD 8970M Crossfire is 20% faster in 1080p
  • HD 8970M Crossfire is 11% faster in 1440p
  • HD 8970M Crossfire is 14% faster in 4K

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

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 8970M Crossfire is 333% faster.
  • in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 970M is 135% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 8970M Crossfire is ahead in 66 tests (92%)
  • GTX 970M is ahead in 6 tests (8%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 18.64 14.83
Recency 1 May 2012 7 October 2014

HD 8970M Crossfire has a 25.7% higher aggregate performance score.

GTX 970M, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years.

The Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 970M in performance tests.


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

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AMD Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire
Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
GeForce GTX 970M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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

Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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