GeForce RTX 2080 Super vs Radeon HD 8970M

Place in the ranking	452	58
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	31.58
Power efficiency	6.95	14.03
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Turing (2018−2022)
GPU code name	Neptune	TU104
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	14 May 2013 (11 years ago)	23 July 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$699

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 cores	1280	3072
Core clock speed	850 MHz	1650 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	1815 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	13,600 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	250 Watt
Texture fill rate	72.00	348.5
Floating-point processing power	2.304 TFLOPS	11.15 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	64
TMUs	80	192
Tensor Cores	no data	384
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	48

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	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-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	4 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	1937 MHz
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	495.9 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	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	-	+
G-SYNC support	-	+

Supported technologies

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

VR Ready

no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_1)
Shader Model	5.1	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2.131
CUDA	-	7.5

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 10.09

RTX 2080 Super 50.87
+404%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

HD 8970M 3876

RTX 2080 Super 19549
+404%

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 6818

RTX 2080 Super 40963
+501%

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 5039

RTX 2080 Super 27398
+444%

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 31027

RTX 2080 Super 140388
+352%

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	51 −175%	140 +175%
1440p	18−20 −433%	96 +433%
4K	14−16 −407%	71 +407%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	4.99
1440p	no data	7.28
4K	no data	9.85

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −611%	135 +611%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −465%	110−120 +465%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −173%	90 +173%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −484%	111 +484%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −140%	48 +140%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −593%	277 +593%
Forza Horizon 5	24−27 −412%	120−130 +412%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −263%	98 +263%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −352%	122 +352%
Valorant	35−40 −472%	223 +472%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −479%	191 +479%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −411%	97 +411%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −105%	41 +105%
Dota 2	26 −365%	121 +365%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −129%	94 +129%
Fortnite	55−60 −193%	173 +193%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −463%	225 +463%
Forza Horizon 5	24−27 −412%	120−130 +412%
Grand Theft Auto V	39 −190%	113 +190%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −222%	87 +222%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	75−80 −218%	248 +218%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −185%	77 +185%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 −480%	170−180 +480%
Valorant	35−40 −264%	142 +264%
World of Tanks	148 −88.5%	270−280 +88.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −139%	79 +139%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −353%	86 +353%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −300%	80 +300%
Dota 2	35−40 −258%	129 +258%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −441%	222 +441%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −373%	189 +373%
Forza Horizon 5	24−27 −368%	117 +368%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	75−80 −106%	161 +106%
Valorant	35−40 −456%	217 +456%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	12−14 −654%	95−100 +654%
Grand Theft Auto V	14−16 −600%	95−100 +600%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50 −265%	170−180 +265%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −538%	51 +538%
World of Tanks	70−75 −351%	300−350 +351%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20 −316%	79 +316%
Counter-Strike 2	8−9 −400%	40−45 +400%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 −563%	53 +563%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −627%	160 +627%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −513%	141 +513%
Forza Horizon 5	14−16 −487%	85−90 +487%
Metro Exodus	18−20 −374%	90 +374%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −662%	95−100 +662%
Valorant	24−27 −552%	163 +552%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	14−16 −107%	27−30 +107%
Dota 2	20−22 −475%	115 +475%
Grand Theft Auto V	20−22 −475%	115 +475%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −700%	40 +700%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	27−30 −490%	171 +490%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −450%	33 +450%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22 −475%	115 +475%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −656%	68 +656%
Counter-Strike 2	14−16 +16.7%	12 −16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −800%	27 +800%
Dota 2	20−22 −480%	116 +480%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −550%	78 +550%
Fortnite	10−12 −636%	80−85 +636%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −531%	82 +531%
Forza Horizon 5	7−8 −643%	50−55 +643%
Valorant	10−11 −770%	87 +770%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2

30−35

+0%

30−35

+0%

This is how HD 8970M and RTX 2080 Super compete in popular games:

RTX 2080 Super is 175% faster in 1080p
RTX 2080 Super is 433% faster in 1440p
RTX 2080 Super is 407% faster in 4K

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

in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 8970M is 17% faster.
in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 2080 Super is 800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

HD 8970M is ahead in 1 test (2%)
RTX 2080 Super is ahead in 62 tests (97%)
there's a draw in 1 test (2%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	10.09	50.87
Recency	14 May 2013	23 July 2019
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	250 Watt

HD 8970M has 150% lower power consumption.

RTX 2080 Super, on the other hand, has a 404.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 133.3% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Super is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 8970M in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 2080 Super is a desktop one.

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