GeForce GTX 970M vs Radeon HD 6990

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon HD 6990 with GeForce GTX 970M, including specs and performance data.

HD 6990
2011
2 GB GDDR5, 375 Watt
7.81

GTX 970M outperforms HD 6990 by an impressive 90% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking517351
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.60no data
Power efficiency1.5013.21
ArchitectureTeraScale 3 (2010−2013)Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameAntillesGM204
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date8 March 2011 (13 years ago)7 October 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$699 $2,560.89

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 6990 and GTX 970M have a nearly equal value for money.

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 cores15361280
Core clock speed830 MHz924 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1038 MHz
Number of transistors2,640 million5,200 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)375 Wattunknown
Texture fill rate79.6883.04
Floating-point processing power2.55 TFLOPS2.657 TFLOPS
ROPs3248
TMUs9680

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 sizeno datalarge
Bus supportno dataPCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16MXM-B (3.0)
Length295 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 8-pinNone
SLI options-+

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 GB3 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth160.0 GB/s120 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 Connectors1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPortNo outputs
VGA аnalog display supportno data+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportno data+
HDMI-+
G-SYNC support-+

Supported technologies

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

GameStream-+
GeForce ShadowPlay-+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorks-+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder-+
Optimus-+
BatteryBoost-+
Ansel-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.2 (11_0)12 (12_1)
Shader Model5.06.4
OpenGL4.44.5
OpenCL1.21.1
VulkanN/A1.1.126
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 6990 7.81
GTX 970M 14.83
+89.9%

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 6990 3013
GTX 970M 5724
+90%

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 6990 5830
GTX 970M 7463
+28%

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:

900p70−75
−94.3%
136
+94.3%
Full HD27−30
−104%
55
+104%
1440p12−14
−108%
25
+108%
4K10−12
−110%
21
+110%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 42
+0%
42
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Battlefield 5 52
+0%
52
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 50
+0%
50
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 48
+0%
48
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 144
+0%
144
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Metro Exodus 53
+0%
53
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 81
+0%
81
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 53
+0%
53
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Battlefield 5 44
+0%
44
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 41
+0%
41
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 37
+0%
37
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 131
+0%
131
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Metro Exodus 44
+0%
44
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 101
+0%
101
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 21
+0%
21
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Far Cry 5 29
+0%
29
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 36
+0%
36
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 26
+0%
26
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80
+0%
75−80
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 26
+0%
26
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 25
+0%
25
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 17
+0%
17
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Far Cry 5 19
+0%
19
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 80
+0%
80
+0%
Hitman 3 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Metro Exodus 25
+0%
25
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 90−95
+0%
90−95
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 12
+0%
12
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 13
+0%
13
+0%
Hitman 3 10−12
+0%
10−12
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
+0%
70−75
+0%
Metro Exodus 14
+0%
14
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 16
+0%
16
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
+0%
9−10
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
+0%
2−3
+0%
Far Cry 5 8
+0%
8
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 6
+0%
6
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7
+0%
6−7
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%

This is how HD 6990 and GTX 970M compete in popular games:

  • GTX 970M is 94% faster in 900p
  • GTX 970M is 104% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 970M is 108% faster in 1440p
  • GTX 970M is 110% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 7.81 14.83
Recency 8 March 2011 7 October 2014
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 3 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 28 nm

GTX 970M has a 89.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce GTX 970M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6990 in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 6990 is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 970M is a notebook one.


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

Vote for your favorite

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AMD Radeon HD 6990
Radeon HD 6990
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
GeForce GTX 970M

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.


3.6 25 votes

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4.2 305 votes

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Questions & comments

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