Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition vs R9 285
General info
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 294 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Value for money | 16.15 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 3.0 (2014−2017) | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) |
| GPU code name | Tonga | Tahiti |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Design | no data | reference |
| Release date | 2 September 2014 (9 years ago) | 22 June 2012 (11 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $249 | $499 |
| Current price | $85 (0.3x MSRP) | $359 (0.7x MSRP) |
Value for money
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 1792 | 2048 |
| Core clock speed | 918 MHz | no data |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1050 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 5,000 million | 4,313 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 190 Watt | 250 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 102.8 | 134.4 |
| Floating-point performance | 3,290 gflops | 4,301 gflops |
Size and 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).
| Bus support | no data | PCIe 2.1 x16 |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 221 mm | 274 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |
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 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 3 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 5.5 GB/s | 1500 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 176.0 GB/s | 288 GB/s |
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 | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | no data | 1 |
| HDMI | + | + |
| DisplayPort support | no data | - |
Technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| AppAcceleration | no data | - |
| CrossFire | no data | 1 |
| Enduro | no data | - |
| FreeSync | no data | 1 |
| HD3D | no data | - |
| PowerTune | no data | - |
| TrueAudio | no data | - |
| ZeroCore | no data | - |
API support
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | DirectX® 11 |
| Shader Model | 6.5 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 2.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.170 | no data |
| Mantle | no data | - |
Advantages and disadvantages
| Recency | 2 September 2014 | 22 June 2012 |
| Cost | $249 | $499 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 3 GB |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 190 Watt | 250 Watt |
We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 285 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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