GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile vs Radeon HD 8970M

Place in the ranking	449	168
Place by popularity	not in top-100	70
Power efficiency	6.89	27.89
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Neptune	GA106
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	14 May 2013 (11 years ago)	12 January 2021 (3 years ago)

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	3840
Core clock speed	850 MHz	900 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	1425 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	80 Watt
Texture fill rate	72.00	171.0
Floating-point processing power	2.304 TFLOPS	10.94 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	48
TMUs	80	120
Tensor Cores	no data	120
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	30

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	large
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16

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	6 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	336.0 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 outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2
CUDA	-	8.6

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 10.06

RTX 3060 Mobile 32.57
+224%

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 3060 Mobile 12550
+224%

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 3060 Mobile 27419
+302%

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 18667

RTX 3060 Mobile 57333
+207%

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 3060 Mobile 20609
+309%

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 3060 Mobile 104826
+238%

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 −92.2%	98 +92.2%
1440p	18−21 −267%	66 +267%
4K	12−14 −233%	40 +233%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

16−18

−544%

103
+544%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −192%	70−75 +192%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 −407%	76 +407%
Battlefield 5	30−35 −242%	100−110 +242%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20−22 −230%	65−70 +230%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −438%	86 +438%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −217%	70−75 +217%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 −193%	80−85 +193%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −158%	170−180 +158%
Hitman 3	18−20 −458%	106 +458%
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60 −158%	140−150 +158%
Metro Exodus	30−35 −413%	164 +413%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −186%	80−85 +186%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−35 −248%	110−120 +248%
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65 −87.3%	110−120 +87.3%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −192%	70−75 +192%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 −327%	64 +327%
Battlefield 5	30−35 −242%	100−110 +242%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20−22 −230%	65−70 +230%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −331%	69 +331%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −217%	70−75 +217%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 −193%	80−85 +193%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −158%	170−180 +158%
Hitman 3	18−20 −468%	108 +468%
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60 −244%	189 +244%
Metro Exodus	30−35 −303%	129 +303%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −264%	102 +264%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−35 −379%	158 +379%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	82 +20.6%	65−70 −20.6%
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65 −151%	158 +151%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −192%	70−75 +192%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 −273%	56 +273%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	20−22 −230%	65−70 +230%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 −288%	62 +288%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −217%	70−75 +217%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −158%	170−180 +158%
Hitman 3	18−20 −405%	96 +405%
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60 −118%	120 +118%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−35 −324%	140 +324%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18 −333%	78 +333%
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65 +37%	46 −37%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

27−30

−243%

96
+243%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	20−22 −210%	60−65 +210%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −233%	50−55 +233%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −250%	35−40 +250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −700%	48 +700%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−11 −280%	35−40 +280%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −680%	39 +680%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −217%	35−40 +217%
Forza Horizon 4	45−50 −316%	180−190 +316%
Hitman 3	12−14 −392%	64 +392%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 −305%	85 +305%
Metro Exodus	14−16 −467%	85 +467%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −677%	101 +677%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −340%	40−45 +340%
Watch Dogs: Legion	60−65 −81.3%	116 +81.3%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

16−18

−371%

80
+371%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −256%	30−35 +256%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 −271%	24−27 +271%
Hitman 3	6−7 −583%	41 +583%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −272%	160−170 +272%
Metro Exodus	8−9 −650%	60 +650%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9 −588%	55 +588%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −250%	21−24 +250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	4−5 −175%	11 +175%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 −300%	20−22 +300%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −1400%	15 +1400%
Far Cry 5	5−6 −260%	18−20 +260%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −246%	45−50 +246%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −757%	60 +757%
Watch Dogs: Legion	4−5 −375%	19 +375%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−11

−340%

44
+340%

This is how HD 8970M and RTX 3060 Mobile compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 Mobile is 92% faster in 1080p
RTX 3060 Mobile is 267% faster in 1440p
RTX 3060 Mobile is 233% faster in 4K

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

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 8970M is 37% faster.
in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3060 Mobile is 1400% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

HD 8970M is ahead in 2 tests (3%)
RTX 3060 Mobile is ahead in 70 tests (97%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	10.06	32.57
Recency	14 May 2013	12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	6 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	80 Watt

RTX 3060 Mobile has a 223.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 25% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 8970M in performance tests.

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