Radeon RX Vega 7 vs HD 8970M

Place in performance ranking	412	498
Place by popularity	not in top-100	9
Value for money	11.11	10.95
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	Vega (2017−2021)
GPU code name	Neptune	Vega Raven Ridge
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	15 May 2013 (10 years ago)	7 January 2020 (4 years ago)
Current price	$135	$387

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 8970M has 1% better value for money than RX Vega 7.

Technical specs

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	448
Core clock speed	850 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	1800 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	no data
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	100 Watt	15 Watt
Texture fill rate	72.00	no data
Floating-point performance	2,304 gflops	no data

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 8970M and Radeon RX Vega 7 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	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	no data

Memory

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	no data
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	no data
Memory bus width	256 Bit	no data
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	no data
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB/s	no data
Shared memory	-	+

Video outputs and ports

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 data

API support

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12_1
Shader Model	5.1	no data
OpenGL	4.6	no data
OpenCL	1.2	no data
Vulkan	1.2.131	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 10.01
+34.7%

RX Vega 7 7.43

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 35% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 8970M 18667
+5.4%

RX Vega 7 17714

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 5% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

HD 8970M 6818
+29.9%

RX Vega 7 5249

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 30% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 8970M 5039
+50.5%

RX Vega 7 3348

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 51% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

HD 8970M 31027
+25.5%

RX Vega 7 24726

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 25% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

HD 8970M 56
+61.2%

RX Vega 7 35

HD 8970M outperforms RX Vega 7 by 61% in Unigine Heaven 3.0.

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	53 +130%	23 −130%
1440p	40−45 +25%	32 −25%
4K	24−27 +33.3%	18 −33.3%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

16−18

−12.5%

18
+12.5%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +0%	21 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 −26.7%	19 +26.7%
Battlefield 5	30−35 +21.4%	28 −21.4%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +17.4%	23 −17.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +14.3%	14 −14.3%
Far Cry 5	24−27 +25%	20 −25%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +28.6%	21 −28.6%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 −5.7%	37 +5.7%
Hitman 3	24−27 +23.8%	21 −23.8%
Horizon Zero Dawn	20−22 −15%	23 +15%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +13.3%	15 −13.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 +16.7%	18 −16.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +5.9%	17 −5.9%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +23.5%	17 −23.5%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 +0%	15 +0%
Battlefield 5	30−35 +47.8%	23 −47.8%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +50%	18 −50%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +60%	10 −60%
Far Cry 5	24−27 +38.9%	18 −38.9%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +35%	20 −35%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +0%	35 +0%
Hitman 3	24−27 +52.9%	17 −52.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	20−22 +0%	20 +0%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +15.4%	13 −15.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +30.8%	12−14 −30.8%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 +40%	15 −40%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	31 +63.2%	19 −63.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +20%	15 −20%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +40%	14−16 −40%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16 +50%	10−11 −50%
Battlefield 5	30−35 +61.9%	21 −61.9%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +77.8%	9 −77.8%
Far Cry 5	24−27 +38.9%	18 −38.9%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +50%	18 −50%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +29.6%	27 −29.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18 +38.5%	13 −38.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +50%	12−14 −50%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 +36.4%	10−12 −36.4%
Hitman 3	16−18 +33.3%	12−14 −33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 +23.1%	12−14 −23.1%
Metro Exodus	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +30%	10−11 −30%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +50%	6−7 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +100%	3−4 −100%
Battlefield 5	16−18 +88.9%	9−10 −88.9%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
Far Cry 5	16−18 +33.3%	12−14 −33.3%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +60%	10−11 −60%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 +50%	12−14 −50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +40%	5−6 −40%
Hitman 3	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Metro Exodus	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9 +100%	4−5 −100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Battlefield 5	8−9 +100%	4−5 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +33.3%	6−7 −33.3%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−12 +22.2%	9−10 −22.2%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Watch Dogs: Legion	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

This is how HD 8970M and RX Vega 7 compete in popular games:

HD 8970M is 130% faster than RX Vega 7 in 1080p
HD 8970M is 25% faster than RX Vega 7 in 1440p
HD 8970M is 33.3% faster than RX Vega 7 in 4K

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

in Metro Exodus, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the HD 8970M is 300% faster than the RX Vega 7.
in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX Vega 7 is 26.7% faster than the HD 8970M.

All in all, in popular games: