GeForce GTX 1660 vs Radeon HD 6970

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 1660, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6970
2010
2 GB GDDR5, 550 Watt
7.35

GTX 1660 outperforms HD 6970 by a whopping 312% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking537186
Place by popularitynot in top-10039
Cost-effectiveness evaluation1.0648.17
Power efficiency2.0217.30
ArchitectureTeraScale 3 (2010−2013)Turing (2018−2022)
GPU code nameCaymanTU116
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date14 December 2010 (14 years ago)14 March 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$369 $219

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 1660 has 4444% better value for money than HD 6970.

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 cores15361408
Core clock speedno data1530 MHz
Boost clock speed880 MHz1785 MHz
Number of transistors2,640 million6,600 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)550 Watt120 Watt
Texture fill rate84.48157.1
Floating-point processing power2.703 TFLOPS5.027 TFLOPS
ROPs3248
TMUs9688

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 supportPCIe 2.0 x16no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mm229 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin1x 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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1375 MHz2001 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data192.1 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Eyefinity+-
HDMI++

Supported technologies

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

CrossFire+-

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1112 (12_1)
Shader Model5.06.5
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan-1.2.131
CUDA-7.5

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.

HD 6970 7.35
GTX 1660 30.28
+312%

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.

HD 6970 2833
GTX 1660 11669
+312%

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.

HD 6970 3470
GTX 1660 14164
+308%

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:

Full HD18−21
−361%
83
+361%
1440p10−12
−390%
49
+390%
4K6−7
−333%
26
+333%

Cost per frame, $

1080p20.502.64
1440p36.904.47
4K61.508.42

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
−492%
71
+492%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
−261%
65−70
+261%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−11
−490%
59
+490%
Battlefield 5 21−24
−350%
95−100
+350%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
−387%
73
+387%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
−383%
58
+383%
Far Cry 5 16−18
−300%
65−70
+300%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
−267%
75−80
+267%
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
−237%
160−170
+237%
Hitman 3 14−16
−393%
69
+393%
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
−612%
306
+612%
Metro Exodus 21−24
−586%
144
+586%
Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
−460%
112
+460%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
−320%
100−110
+320%
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55
−320%
227
+320%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
−583%
123
+583%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−11
−320%
42
+320%
Battlefield 5 21−24
−350%
95−100
+350%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
−347%
67
+347%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
−292%
47
+292%
Far Cry 5 16−18
−300%
65−70
+300%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
−267%
75−80
+267%
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
−237%
160−170
+237%
Hitman 3 14−16
−379%
67
+379%
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
−567%
287
+567%
Metro Exodus 21−24
−438%
113
+438%
Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
−295%
79
+295%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
−340%
110
+340%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
−191%
60−65
+191%
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55
−296%
214
+296%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
−261%
65−70
+261%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−11
−270%
37
+270%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
−227%
49
+227%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14
−233%
40
+233%
Far Cry 5 16−18
−300%
65−70
+300%
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
−100%
98
+100%
Hitman 3 14−16
−321%
59
+321%
Horizon Zero Dawn 40−45
−116%
93
+116%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
−280%
95
+280%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21−24
−159%
57
+159%
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55
+86.2%
29
−86.2%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 20−22
−305%
81
+305%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−307%
55−60
+307%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−12
−318%
45−50
+318%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
−357%
30−35
+357%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
−800%
27
+800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
−386%
34
+386%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−700%
24
+700%
Far Cry 5 8−9
−338%
35−40
+338%
Forza Horizon 4 27−30
−544%
170−180
+544%
Hitman 3 10−12
−255%
39
+255%
Horizon Zero Dawn 16−18
−319%
67
+319%
Metro Exodus 8−9
−638%
59
+638%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 5−6
−1240%
67
+1240%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
−567%
40−45
+567%
Watch Dogs: Legion 45−50
−298%
187
+298%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
−308%
53
+308%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 6−7
−400%
30−33
+400%
Far Cry New Dawn 5−6
−380%
24−27
+380%
Hitman 3 3−4
−600%
21
+600%
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
−163%
63
+163%
Metro Exodus 5−6
−780%
44
+780%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4−5
−775%
35
+775%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
−375%
18−20
+375%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
−400%
15
+400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
−467%
17
+467%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−900%
10
+900%
Far Cry 5 4−5
−325%
16−18
+325%
Forza Horizon 4 8−9
−525%
50
+525%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2−3
−1700%
36
+1700%
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3
−500%
12
+500%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
−271%
26
+271%

This is how HD 6970 and GTX 1660 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 1660 is 361% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 1660 is 390% faster in 1440p
  • GTX 1660 is 333% faster in 4K

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

  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6970 is 86% faster.
  • in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 1660 is 1700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • HD 6970 is ahead in 1 test (1%)
  • GTX 1660 is ahead in 71 test (99%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 7.35 30.28
Recency 14 December 2010 14 March 2019
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 12 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 550 Watt 120 Watt

GTX 1660 has a 312% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 233.3% more advanced lithography process, and 358.3% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 1660 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6970 in performance tests.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon HD 6970
Radeon HD 6970
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
GeForce GTX 1660

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.7 156 votes

Rate Radeon HD 6970 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.1 5335 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 1660 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.