Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs HD 8970M Crossfire

Place in performance ranking	275	6
Place by popularity	not in top-100	54
Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation	32.66	27.55
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	RDNA 3
GPU code name	Neptune CF	Navi 31 XTX
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 May 2012 (12 years ago)	3 November 2022 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$999
Current price	$170	$859 (0.9x MSRP)

Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 8970M Crossfire has 19% better value for money than RX 7900 XTX.

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	2560	6144
Core clock speed	850 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	2270 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	355 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	959.6

Form Factor & Compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire and Radeon RX 7900 XTX 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	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	287 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	2x 8-pin

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	no data	24 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	20000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	960.0 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 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	no data	+

API Compatibility

List of supported graphics 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	2.1
Vulkan	no data	1.3

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 8970M Crossfire 18.98

RX 7900 XTX 79.99
+321%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 321% based on our aggregated 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 8970M Crossfire 34215

RX 7900 XTX 148746
+335%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 335% 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 8970M Crossfire 12424

RX 7900 XTX 83322
+571%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 571% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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 8970M Crossfire 10354

RX 7900 XTX 64680
+525%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 525% 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 8970M Crossfire 70114

RX 7900 XTX 211480
+202%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 202% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

HD 8970M Crossfire 269832

RX 7900 XTX 758139
+181%

RX 7900 XTX outperforms HD 8970M Crossfire by 181% in 3DMark Ice Storm 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:

Full HD	70 −260%	252 +260%
1440p	40−45 −343%	177 +343%
4K	27−30 −326%	115 +326%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

30−33

−707%

242
+707%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −326%	166 +326%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −758%	283 +758%
Battlefield 5	60−65 −166%	170−180 +166%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50 −263%	170−180 +263%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33 −670%	231 +670%
Far Cry 5	50−55 −324%	212 +324%
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55 −231%	169 +231%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −412%	338 +412%
Hitman 3	50−55 −304%	210−220 +304%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −470%	228 +470%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −342%	130−140 +342%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −705%	322 +705%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −261%	130−140 +261%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −287%	151 +287%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −630%	241 +630%
Battlefield 5	60−65 −166%	170−180 +166%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50 −263%	170−180 +263%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33 −593%	208 +593%
Far Cry 5	50−55 −310%	205 +310%
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55 −218%	162 +218%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −400%	330 +400%
Hitman 3	50−55 −304%	210−220 +304%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −428%	211 +428%
Metro Exodus	30−33 −697%	239 +697%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −342%	130−140 +342%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −665%	306 +665%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 −1229%	545 +1229%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −261%	130−140 +261%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −244%	134 +244%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	30−35 −536%	210 +536%
Battlefield 5	60−65 −166%	170−180 +166%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33 −563%	199 +563%
Far Cry 5	50−55 −278%	189 +278%
Far Cry New Dawn	50−55 −186%	146 +186%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −347%	295 +347%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	40−45 −627%	298 +627%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −261%	130−140 +261%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −425%	140−150 +425%
Hitman 3	30−33 −517%	180−190 +517%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −704%	201 +704%
Metro Exodus	18−20 −794%	161 +794%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −493%	80−85 +493%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27 −896%	239 +896%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	20−22 −560%	132 +560%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18 −906%	171 +906%
Battlefield 5	40−45 −264%	150−160 +264%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 −1182%	141 +1182%
Far Cry 5	30−35 −484%	187 +484%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −306%	146 +306%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 −663%	290 +663%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 −1033%	238 +1033%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −592%	90−95 +592%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 −564%	90−95 +564%
Hitman 3	18−20 −522%	110−120 +522%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −442%	65 +442%
Metro Exodus	10−12 −882%	108 +882%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−11 −460%	55−60 +460%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −1017%	134 +1017%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −858%	182 +858%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −817%	110 +817%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11 −970%	107 +970%
Battlefield 5	21−24 −405%	110−120 +405%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1675%	71 +1675%
Far Cry 5	14−16 −960%	159 +960%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 −678%	140 +678%
Forza Horizon 4	27−30 −741%	227 +741%
Watch Dogs: Legion	8−9 −575%	50−55 +575%