GeForce GTX 260M SLI vs Radeon HD 6970M

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6970M and GeForce GTX 260M SLI, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

HD 6970M
2011
1 GB GDDR5, 75 Watt
5.89
+79%

HD 6970M outperforms GTX 260M SLI by an impressive 79% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking591741
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency5.381.50
ArchitectureTeraScale 2 (2009−2015)G9x (2007−2010)
GPU code nameBlackcombNB9E-GTX
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date4 January 2011 (13 years ago)2 March 2009 (15 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 cores960224
Core clock speed680 MHz550 MHz
Number of transistors1,700 million1508 Million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)75 Watt150 Watt
Texture fill rate32.64no data
Floating-point processing power1.306 TFLOPSno data
ROPs32no data
TMUs48no data

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 sizelargelarge
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data

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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount1 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed900 MHz950 MHz
Memory bandwidth115.2 GB/sno 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 ConnectorsNo outputsno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)10
Shader Model5.0no data
OpenGL4.4no data
OpenCL1.2no data
VulkanN/A-
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.

HD 6970M 5.89
+79%
GTX 260M SLI 3.29

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 6970M 11898
+32.8%
GTX 260M SLI 8959

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:

900p52
+92.6%
27−30
−92.6%
Full HD51
+88.9%
27−30
−88.9%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+50%
10−11
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Battlefield 5 16−18
+167%
6−7
−167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+117%
6−7
−117%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
+124%
16−18
−124%
Hitman 3 12−14
+50%
8−9
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
+56.5%
21−24
−56.5%
Metro Exodus 14−16
+275%
4−5
−275%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+100%
8−9
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22
+53.8%
12−14
−53.8%
Watch Dogs: Legion 45−50
+22.5%
40−45
−22.5%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+50%
10−11
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Battlefield 5 16−18
+167%
6−7
−167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+117%
6−7
−117%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
+124%
16−18
−124%
Hitman 3 12−14
+50%
8−9
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
+56.5%
21−24
−56.5%
Metro Exodus 14−16
+275%
4−5
−275%
Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+100%
8−9
−100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22
+53.8%
12−14
−53.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
+35.7%
14−16
−35.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 45−50
+22.5%
40−45
−22.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+50%
10−11
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+600%
1−2
−600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+71.4%
7−8
−71.4%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−11
+66.7%
6−7
−66.7%
Far Cry 5 12−14
+117%
6−7
−117%
Forza Horizon 4 35−40
+124%
16−18
−124%
Hitman 3 12−14
+50%
8−9
−50%
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
+56.5%
21−24
−56.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22
+53.8%
12−14
−53.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
+35.7%
14−16
−35.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 45−50
+22.5%
40−45
−22.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 16−18
+100%
8−9
−100%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 10−12
+120%
5−6
−120%
Far Cry New Dawn 9−10
+80%
5−6
−80%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1−2 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
+50%
2−3
−50%
Far Cry 5 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+88.9%
9−10
−88.9%
Hitman 3 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
+62.5%
8−9
−62.5%
Metro Exodus 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1−2 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 5−6
+150%
2−3
−150%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40
+94.7%
18−20
−94.7%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 10−11
+42.9%
7−8
−42.9%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 5−6
+400%
1−2
−400%
Far Cry New Dawn 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Hitman 3 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
+100%
7−8
−100%
Metro Exodus 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%
Cyberpunk 2077 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 3−4
+200%
1−2
−200%
Forza Horizon 4 6−7
+500%
1−2
−500%
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%

This is how HD 6970M and GTX 260M SLI compete in popular games:

  • HD 6970M is 93% faster in 900p
  • HD 6970M is 89% faster in 1080p

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

  • in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 6970M is 600% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, HD 6970M surpassed GTX 260M SLI in all 62 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 5.89 3.29
Recency 4 January 2011 2 March 2009
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 55 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 150 Watt

HD 6970M has a 79% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 100% lower power consumption.

GTX 260M SLI, on the other hand, has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

The Radeon HD 6970M is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 260M SLI 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 6970M
Radeon HD 6970M
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M SLI
GeForce GTX 260M SLI

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.


2.7 92 votes

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

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
2.7 7 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 260M SLI 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.