GeForce RTX 4060 vs Radeon HD 8970M

Place in the ranking	451	53
Place by popularity	not in top-100	2
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	100.00
Power efficiency	6.95	30.90
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	Neptune	AD107
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	14 May 2013 (11 years ago)	18 May 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$299

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	1830 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	2460 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	18,900 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	115 Watt
Texture fill rate	72.00	236.2
Floating-point processing power	2.304 TFLOPS	15.11 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	48
TMUs	80	96
Tensor Cores	no data	96
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	24

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 4.0 x8
Length	no data	240 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 12-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	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	2125 MHz
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	272.0 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	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

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	6.8
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	-	8.9

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 10.08

RTX 4060 51.51
+411%

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 4060 19807
+411%

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 4060 38191
+460%

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 4060 107451
+476%

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 4060 28111
+458%

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 4060 156140
+403%

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 −167%	136 +167%
1440p	12−14 −475%	69 +475%
4K	7−8 −471%	40 +471%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	2.20
1440p	no data	4.33
4K	no data	7.48

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −611%	135 +611%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −595%	139 +595%
Elden Ring	27−30 −410%	148 +410%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −252%	110−120 +252%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −474%	109 +474%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −170%	54 +170%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −580%	272 +580%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −511%	165 +511%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −256%	95−100 +256%
Valorant	35−40 −471%	210−220 +471%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −252%	110−120 +252%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −379%	91 +379%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −125%	45 +125%
Dota 2	26 −496%	155 +496%
Elden Ring	27−30 −552%	180−190 +552%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −263%	149 +263%
Fortnite	55−60 −253%	200−210 +253%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −443%	217 +443%
Grand Theft Auto V	39 −305%	158 +305%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −337%	118 +337%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	75−80 −176%	210−220 +176%
Red Dead Redemption 2	27−30 −256%	95−100 +256%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33 −480%	170−180 +480%
Valorant	35−40 −471%	210−220 +471%
World of Tanks	148 −88.5%	270−280 +88.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −252%	110−120 +252%
Counter-Strike 2	18−20 −300%	76 +300%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −100%	40 +100%
Dota 2	35−40 −400%	180−190 +400%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −168%	110−120 +168%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −375%	190 +375%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	75−80 −176%	210−220 +176%
Valorant	35−40 −471%	210−220 +471%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	12−14 −592%	90 +592%
Elden Ring	14−16 −736%	110−120 +736%
Grand Theft Auto V	12−14 −592%	90 +592%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50 −265%	170−180 +265%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −522%	55−60 +522%
World of Tanks	70−75 −358%	300−350 +358%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20 −342%	80−85 +342%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −318%	46 +318%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −243%	24 +243%
Far Cry 5	21−24 −623%	150−160 +623%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −486%	129 +486%
Metro Exodus	18−20 −484%	111 +484%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −742%	100−110 +742%
Valorant	24−27 −640%	180−190 +640%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	4−5 −1350%	55−60 +1350%
Dota 2	20−22 −345%	89 +345%
Elden Ring	6−7 −867%	55−60 +867%
Grand Theft Auto V	20−22 −345%	89 +345%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −533%	38 +533%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	27−30 −510%	170−180 +510%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 −500%	35−40 +500%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22 −345%	89 +345%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −611%	60−65 +611%
Counter-Strike 2	4−5 −1350%	55−60 +1350%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −233%	10 +233%
Dota 2	20−22 −400%	100−105 +400%
Far Cry 5	12−14 −625%	85−90 +625%
Fortnite	10−12 −655%	80−85 +655%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −438%	70 +438%
Valorant	10−11 −920%	100−110 +920%

This is how HD 8970M and RTX 4060 compete in popular games:

RTX 4060 is 167% faster in 1080p
RTX 4060 is 475% faster in 1440p
RTX 4060 is 471% faster in 4K

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

in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 4060 is 1350% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RTX 4060 surpassed HD 8970M in all 61 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	10.08	51.51
Recency	14 May 2013	18 May 2023
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	115 Watt

HD 8970M has 15% lower power consumption.

RTX 4060, on the other hand, has a 411% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4060 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 4060 is a desktop one.

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