ATI Radeon 9700 PRO X4 vs HD 6970

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking534not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation1.00no data
Power efficiency2.05no data
ArchitectureTeraScale 3 (2010−2013)Rage 8 (2002−2007)
GPU code nameCaymanR300
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date14 December 2010 (13 years ago)1 July 2002 (22 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$369 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores1536no data
Core clock speedno data325 MHz
Boost clock speed880 MHzno data
Number of transistors2,640 million110 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm150 nm
Power consumption (TDP)550 Wattno data
Texture fill rate84.482.600
Floating-point processing power2.703 TFLOPSno data
ROPs328
TMUs968

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 x16PCI
Length267 mmno data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin2x Molex

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 typeGDDR5DDR
Maximum RAM amount2 GB128 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1375 MHz310 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data19.84 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort4x DVI
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® 119.0 (9_0)
Shader Model5.0no data
OpenGL4.42.0
OpenCL1.2N/A
Vulkan-N/A

Pros & cons summary


Recency 14 December 2010 1 July 2002
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 128 MB
Chip lithography 40 nm 150 nm

HD 6970 has an age advantage of 8 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 275% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon 9700 PRO X4. 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.

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
ATI Radeon 9700 PRO X4
Radeon 9700 PRO X4

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
3 2 votes

Rate Radeon 9700 PRO X4 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.