Radeon HD 6970M X2 vs RX 580
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 244 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | 1 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 18.57 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 8.50 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 4.0 (2016−2020) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | Polaris 20 | Blackcomb |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 18 April 2017 (7 years ago) | 4 January 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $229 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 2304 | 960 |
| Core clock speed | 1257 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1340 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 5,700 million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 14 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 185 Watt | 150 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 193.0 | 32.64 |
| Floating-point processing power | 6.175 TFLOPS | 1.306 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| TMUs | 144 | 48 |
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).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Length | 241 mm | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 8-pin | None |
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 | 8 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 2000 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 256.0 GB/s | 115.2 GB/s |
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 | 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort | Portable Device Dependent |
| HDMI | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 18 April 2017 | 4 January 2011 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 8 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 185 Watt | 150 Watt |
RX 580 has an age advantage of 6 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 185.7% more advanced lithography process.
HD 6970M X2, on the other hand, has 23.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon RX 580 and Radeon HD 6970M X2. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon RX 580 is a desktop card while Radeon HD 6970M X2 is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
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