Radeon Instinct MI6 vs HD 8970M
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 508 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 7.12 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | GCN 4.0 (2016−2020) |
| GPU code name | Neptune | Ellesmere |
| Market segment | Laptop | Workstation |
| Release date | 14 May 2013 (12 years ago) | 12 December 2016 (9 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 | 2304 |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 1120 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | 1233 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | 5,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 150 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 72.00 | 177.6 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.304 TFLOPS | 5.682 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| TMUs | 80 | 144 |
| L1 Cache | 320 KB | 576 KB |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB | 2 MB |
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 | 241 mm |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 1x 6-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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1200 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | No outputs |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 (12_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.4 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.2.131 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 14 May 2013 | 12 December 2016 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 150 Watt |
HD 8970M has 50% lower power consumption.
Instinct MI6, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8970M and Radeon Instinct MI6. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M is a notebook graphics card while Radeon Instinct MI6 is a workstation one.
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