Radeon HD 8970 OEM vs GeForce Go 6800

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureCurie (2003−2013)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameNV41Tahiti
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date8 November 2004 (19 years ago)8 January 2013 (11 years ago)

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 cores172048
Core clock speed300 MHz925 MHz
Boost clock speed300 MHzno data
Number of transistors190 million4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology130 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)45 Watt250 Watt
Texture fill rate3.600118.4
Floating-point processing powerno data3.789 TFLOPS
ROPs832
TMUs12128

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 sizelargeno data
InterfaceMXM-IIIPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data274 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsNone1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount256 MB3 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit384 Bit
Memory clock speed550 MHz1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth35.2 GB/s264.0 GB/s
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 ConnectorsPortable Device Dependent1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX9.0c (9_3)12 (11_1)
Shader Model3.05.1
OpenGL2.0 (full) 2.1 (partial)4.6
OpenCLN/A1.2
VulkanN/A1.2.131

Pros & cons summary


Recency 8 November 2004 8 January 2013
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 3 GB
Chip lithography 130 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt 250 Watt

Go 6800 has 455.6% lower power consumption.

HD 8970 OEM, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 364.3% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce Go 6800 and Radeon HD 8970 OEM. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce Go 6800 is a notebook card while Radeon HD 8970 OEM is a desktop one.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
GeForce Go 6800
AMD Radeon HD 8970 OEM
Radeon HD 8970 OEM

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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5 2 votes

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2.7 6 votes

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Questions & comments

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