GeForce GTX 280M SLI vs Radeon HD 6970M

Place in the ranking	587	724
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	5.46	1.59
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	G9x (2007−2010)
GPU code name	Blackcomb	N10E-GTX
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	4 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 cores	960	256
Core clock speed	680 MHz	585 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	1508 Million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	55 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	150 Watt
Texture fill rate	32.64	no data
Floating-point processing power	1.306 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	32	no data
TMUs	48	no 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 size	large	large
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	no data
Supplementary power connectors	None	no 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	950 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	no 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 Connectors

No outputs

no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	10
Shader Model	5.0	no data
OpenGL	4.4	no data
OpenCL	1.2	no data
Vulkan	N/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 5.88
+71.4%

GTX 280M SLI 3.43

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
+26.1%

GTX 280M SLI 9435

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:

900p	52 +73.3%	30−35 −73.3%
Full HD	51 +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 +250%	2−3 −250%
Battlefield 5	16−18 +167%	6−7 −167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +85.7%	7−8 −85.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +77.8%	9−10 −77.8%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +100%	18−20 −100%
Hitman 3	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +50%	24−27 −50%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +200%	5−6 −200%
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 +250%	2−3 −250%
Battlefield 5	16−18 +167%	6−7 −167%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +85.7%	7−8 −85.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +77.8%	9−10 −77.8%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +100%	18−20 −100%
Hitman 3	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +50%	24−27 −50%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +200%	5−6 −200%
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 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%
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 +250%	2−3 −250%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +85.7%	7−8 −85.7%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +100%	18−20 −100%
Hitman 3	12−14 +50%	8−9 −50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +50%	24−27 −50%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 +53.8%	12−14 −53.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%
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 +83.3%	6−7 −83.3%
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	0−1
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 +85%	20−22 −85%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−11
+42.9%

7−8

−42.9%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	5−6 +150%	2−3 −150%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +100%	2−3 −100%
Hitman 3	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 +75%	8−9 −75%
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 280M SLI compete in popular games:

HD 6970M is 73% faster in 900p
HD 6970M is 89% faster in 1080p

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6970M is 500% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, HD 6970M surpassed GTX 280M SLI in all 62 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.88	3.43
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 71.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 100% lower power consumption.

GTX 280M 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 280M SLI in performance tests.

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