Radeon HD 6970 vs GeForce GTX 970M

Place in the ranking	351	531
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	1.00
Power efficiency	12.68	2.03
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)	TeraScale 3 (2010−2013)
GPU code name	GM204	Cayman
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Design	no data	reference
Release date	7 October 2014 (10 years ago)	14 December 2010 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$2,560.89	$369

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 970M and HD 6970 have a nearly equal value for money.

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	1536
Core clock speed	924 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	1038 MHz	880 MHz
Number of transistors	5,200 million	2,640 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	unknown	550 Watt
Texture fill rate	83.04	84.48
Floating-point processing power	2.657 TFLOPS	2.703 TFLOPS
ROPs	48	32
TMUs	80	96

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
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	PCIe 2.0 x16
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 6-pin + 1x 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	3 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	192 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	2500 MHz	1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth	120 GB/s	no data
Shared memory	-	-

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	No outputs	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity	-	+
VGA аnalog display support	+	no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	+	no data
HDMI	+	+
G-SYNC support	+	-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

CrossFire	-	+
GameStream	+	-
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	-
GPU Boost	2.0	no data
GameWorks	+	-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+	-
Optimus	+	-
BatteryBoost	+	-
Ansel	+	-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (12_1)	DirectX® 11
Shader Model	6.4	5.0
OpenGL	4.5	4.4
OpenCL	1.1	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	-
CUDA	+	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

GTX 970M 14.83
+102%

HD 6970 7.34

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 970M 5724
+102%

HD 6970 2831

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.

GTX 970M 7463
+115%

HD 6970 3470

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:

900p	136 +109%	65−70 −109%
Full HD	55 +104%	27−30 −104%
1440p	25 +108%	12−14 −108%
4K	21 +110%	10−12 −110%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	46.56	13.67
1440p	102.44	30.75
4K	121.95	36.90

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

21−24
+91.7%

12−14

−91.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	42 +133%	18−20 −133%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 +140%	10−11 −140%
Battlefield 5	52 +136%	21−24 −136%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33 +100%	14−16 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +91.7%	12−14 −91.7%
Far Cry 5	50 +194%	16−18 −194%
Far Cry New Dawn	48 +129%	21−24 −129%
Forza Horizon 4	144 +194%	45−50 −194%
Hitman 3	27−30 +100%	14−16 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80 +76.7%	40−45 −76.7%
Metro Exodus	53 +152%	21−24 −152%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 +105%	20−22 −105%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	81 +224%	24−27 −224%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +44.4%	50−55 −44.4%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	53 +194%	18−20 −194%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 +140%	10−11 −140%
Battlefield 5	44 +100%	21−24 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33 +100%	14−16 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +91.7%	12−14 −91.7%
Far Cry 5	41 +141%	16−18 −141%
Far Cry New Dawn	37 +76.2%	21−24 −76.2%
Forza Horizon 4	131 +167%	45−50 −167%
Hitman 3	27−30 +100%	14−16 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80 +76.7%	40−45 −76.7%
Metro Exodus	44 +110%	21−24 −110%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 +105%	20−22 −105%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 +92%	24−27 −92%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	101 +359%	21−24 −359%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +44.4%	50−55 −44.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21 +16.7%	18−20 −16.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 +140%	10−11 −140%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33 +100%	14−16 −100%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +91.7%	12−14 −91.7%
Far Cry 5	29 +70.6%	16−18 −70.6%
Forza Horizon 4	36 −36.1%	45−50 +36.1%
Hitman 3	27−30 +100%	14−16 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	75−80 +76.7%	40−45 −76.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 +92%	24−27 −92%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	26 +18.2%	21−24 −18.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +44.4%	50−55 −44.4%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45
+105%

20−22

−105%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	26 +85.7%	14−16 −85.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	25 +127%	10−12 −127%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	17 +143%	7−8 −143%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 +300%	3−4 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	16−18 +129%	7−8 −129%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +167%	3−4 −167%
Far Cry 5	19 +138%	8−9 −138%
Forza Horizon 4	80 +196%	27−30 −196%
Hitman 3	18−20 +63.6%	10−12 −63.6%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−33 +87.5%	16−18 −87.5%
Metro Exodus	25 +213%	8−9 −213%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	27−30 +440%	5−6 −440%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 +167%	6−7 −167%
Watch Dogs: Legion	90−95 +93.6%	45−50 −93.6%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

24−27
+84.6%

12−14

−84.6%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12 +100%	6−7 −100%
Far Cry New Dawn	13 +160%	5−6 −160%
Hitman 3	10−12 +267%	3−4 −267%
Horizon Zero Dawn	70−75 +208%	24−27 −208%
Metro Exodus	14 +180%	5−6 −180%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16 +300%	4−5 −300%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +125%	4−5 −125%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry 5	8 +100%	4−5 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	6 −33.3%	8−9 +33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +600%	2−3 −600%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 +200%	2−3 −200%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

12−14
+85.7%

7−8

−85.7%

This is how GTX 970M and HD 6970 compete in popular games:

GTX 970M is 109% faster in 900p
GTX 970M is 104% faster in 1080p
GTX 970M is 108% faster in 1440p
GTX 970M is 110% faster in 4K

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

in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 970M is 600% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6970 is 36% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 970M is ahead in 70 tests (97%)
HD 6970 is ahead in 2 tests (3%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	14.83	7.34
Recency	7 October 2014	14 December 2010
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	2 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm

GTX 970M has a 102% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce GTX 970M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6970 in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 970M is a notebook card while Radeon HD 6970 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.