ATI Radeon HD 5870 Mac Edition vs HD 6970M Mac Edition
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | Blackcomb | Cypress |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 25 August 2011 (13 years ago) | 30 June 2010 (14 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $479 |
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 | 960 | 1600 |
| Core clock speed | 680 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,700 million | 2,154 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 228 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 32.64 | 68.00 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.306 TFLOPS | 2.72 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| TMUs | 48 | 80 |
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).
| Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 279 mm |
| Width | no data | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 2x 6-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 type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 900 MHz | 1195 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 115.2 GB/s | 153.0 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 | No outputs | 1x DVI, 2x mini-DisplayPort |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.2 (11_0) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 25 August 2011 | 30 June 2010 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 228 Watt |
HD 6970M Mac Edition has an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and 204% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition and Radeon HD 5870 Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 6970M Mac Edition is a notebook card while Radeon HD 5870 Mac Edition 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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