Radeon 540 vs HD 8970M Crossfire

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire with Radeon 540, including specs and performance data.


HD 8970M Crossfire
2012
200 Watt
17.04
+388%

HD 8970M Crossfire outperforms 540 by a whopping 388% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking353780
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data0.10
Power efficiency6.565.37
ArchitectureGCN (2012−2015)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameNeptune CFLexa
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date1 May 2012 (13 years ago)20 April 2017 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$79

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices.

no data

Performance to price scatter graph

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 cores2560384
Core clock speed850 MHz1183 MHz
Boost clock speed900 MHz1124 MHz
Number of transistorsno data2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rateno data28.39
Floating-point processing powerno data0.9085 TFLOPS
ROPsno data16
TMUsno data24
L1 Cacheno data96 KB
L2 Cacheno data512 KB

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 sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x8
Lengthno data145 mm
Widthno data1-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone

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 data1 GB
Memory bus width2x 256 Bit32 Bit
Memory clock speed4800 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data24 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.

Display Connectorsno data2x DisplayPort 1.4a

API and SDK support

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

DirectX11.112 (12_0)
Shader Modelno data6.7
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data2.1
Vulkan-1.3

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:

Full HD69
+393%
14−16
−393%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data5.64

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low

Counter-Strike 2 95−100
+444%
18−20
−444%
Cyberpunk 2077 35−40
+429%
7−8
−429%
Resident Evil 4 Remake 35−40
+443%
7−8
−443%

Full HD
Medium

Battlefield 5 70−75
+421%
14−16
−421%
Counter-Strike 2 95−100
+444%
18−20
−444%
Cyberpunk 2077 35−40
+429%
7−8
−429%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+470%
10−11
−470%
Fortnite 90−95
+422%
18−20
−422%
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
+407%
14−16
−407%
Forza Horizon 5 50−55
+440%
10−11
−440%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 65−70
+442%
12−14
−442%
Valorant 130−140
+400%
27−30
−400%

Full HD
High

Battlefield 5 70−75
+421%
14−16
−421%
Counter-Strike 2 95−100
+444%
18−20
−444%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 128
+433%
24−27
−433%
Cyberpunk 2077 35−40
+429%
7−8
−429%
Dota 2 100−110
+390%
21−24
−390%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+470%
10−11
−470%
Fortnite 90−95
+422%
18−20
−422%
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
+407%
14−16
−407%
Forza Horizon 5 50−55
+440%
10−11
−440%
Grand Theft Auto V 65−70
+442%
12−14
−442%
Metro Exodus 35−40
+429%
7−8
−429%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 65−70
+442%
12−14
−442%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 45−50
+433%
9−10
−433%
Valorant 130−140
+400%
27−30
−400%

Full HD
Ultra

Battlefield 5 70−75
+421%
14−16
−421%
Cyberpunk 2077 35−40
+429%
7−8
−429%
Dota 2 100−110
+390%
21−24
−390%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+470%
10−11
−470%
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
+407%
14−16
−407%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 65−70
+442%
12−14
−442%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 45−50
+433%
9−10
−433%
Valorant 130−140
+400%
27−30
−400%

Full HD
Epic

Fortnite 90−95
+422%
18−20
−422%

1440p
High

Counter-Strike 2 30−35
+467%
6−7
−467%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 120−130
+429%
24−27
−429%
Grand Theft Auto V 27−30
+480%
5−6
−480%
Metro Exodus 21−24
+450%
4−5
−450%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 160−170
+450%
30−33
−450%
Valorant 160−170
+460%
30−33
−460%

1440p
Ultra

Battlefield 5 45−50
+390%
10−11
−390%
Cyberpunk 2077 16−18
+433%
3−4
−433%
Far Cry 5 35−40
+443%
7−8
−443%
Forza Horizon 4 40−45
+438%
8−9
−438%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
+420%
5−6
−420%

1440p
Epic

Fortnite 40−45
+400%
8−9
−400%

4K
High

Counter-Strike 2 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Grand Theft Auto V 30−35
+433%
6−7
−433%
Metro Exodus 14−16
+600%
2−3
−600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
+400%
5−6
−400%
Valorant 95−100
+444%
18−20
−444%

4K
Ultra

Battlefield 5 24−27
+420%
5−6
−420%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
+400%
3−4
−400%
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Dota 2 60−65
+408%
12−14
−408%
Far Cry 5 18−20
+533%
3−4
−533%
Forza Horizon 4 30−33
+400%
6−7
−400%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
+467%
3−4
−467%

4K
Epic

Fortnite 18−20
+500%
3−4
−500%

This is how HD 8970M Crossfire and Radeon 540 compete in popular games:

  • HD 8970M Crossfire is 393% faster in 1080p

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 17.04 3.49
Recency 1 May 2012 20 April 2017
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 50 Watt

HD 8970M Crossfire has a 388% higher aggregate performance score.

Radeon 540, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 years, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 300% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 540 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire is a notebook graphics card while Radeon 540 is a desktop one.

Other comparisons

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

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4.8 4 votes

Rate Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3.1 53 votes

Rate Radeon 540 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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