Radeon HD 7970 X2 vs GeForce GTX 580
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 401 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 2.01 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 3.39 | no data |
| Architecture | Fermi 2.0 (2010−2014) | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) |
| GPU code name | GF110 | New Zealand |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 9 November 2010 (13 years ago) | 31 August 2012 (12 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $499 | $899 |
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 | 512 | 2048 |
| Core clock speed | 772 MHz | 925 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 3,000 million | 4,313 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 244 Watt | 500 Watt |
| Maximum GPU temperature | 97 °C | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 49.41 | 118.4 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.581 TFLOPS | 3.789 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 48 | 32 |
| TMUs | 64 | 128 |
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).
| Bus support | PCI-E 2.0 x 16 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 267 mm | 292 mm |
| Height | 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 3x 8-pin |
| SLI options | + | - |
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 | 1536 MB | 3 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 2004 MHz (4008 data rate) | 1375 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 192.4 GB/s | 264.0 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 | Mini HDMITwo Dual Link DVI | 1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPort |
| Multi monitor support | + | no data |
| HDMI | + | - |
| Maximum VGA resolution | 2048x1536 | no data |
| Audio input for HDMI | Internal | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | + | 1.2.131 |
| CUDA | + | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 9 November 2010 | 31 August 2012 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1536 MB | 3 GB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 244 Watt | 500 Watt |
GTX 580 has 104.9% lower power consumption.
HD 7970 X2, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 7970 X2. 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.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
