FirePro M8900 vs Radeon HD 8970M
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 415 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 11.63 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN (2011−2017) | Terascale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | Neptune | Blackcomb XT |
| Market segment | Laptop | Mobile workstation |
| Release date | 15 May 2013 (11 years ago) | 12 April 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Current price | $135 | $267 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 1280 | 960 |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 75 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 72.00 | 32.64 |
| Floating-point performance | 2,304 gflops | 1,305.6 gflops |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on Radeon HD 8970M and FirePro M8900 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 size | large | large |
| Bus support | no data | n/a |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Form factor | no data | MXM-B |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | None |
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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 4800 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 115 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 outputs | No outputs |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 15 May 2013 | 12 April 2011 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 75 Watt |
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8970M and FirePro M8900. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M is a notebook graphics card while FirePro M8900 is a mobile workstation one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
