Radeon Sky 500 vs HD 7970 GHz Edition
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 401 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 5.68 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) |
| GPU code name | Tahiti | Pitcairn |
| Market segment | Desktop | Workstation |
| Design | reference | no data |
| Release date | 22 June 2012 (12 years ago) | 27 March 2013 (11 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $499 | 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 cores | 2048 | 1280 |
| Core clock speed | no data | 950 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1050 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 4,313 million | 2,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 150 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 134.4 | 76.00 |
| Floating-point processing power | 4.301 TFLOPS | 2.432 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| TMUs | 128 | 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).
| Bus support | PCIe 2.1 x16 | PCIe 3.0 |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | 274 mm | 242 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 1-slot |
| Form factor | no data | full height / full length |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 1x 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 | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory bus width | 384 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1500 MHz | 1200 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 288 GB/s | 154 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 | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort | 1x DisplayPort |
| Eyefinity | + | - |
| HDMI | + | - |
| DisplayPort count | no data | 1 |
| Dual-link DVI support | - | + |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| CrossFire | + | - |
| FreeSync | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | DirectX® 11 | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | - | 1.2.131 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 22 June 2012 | 27 March 2013 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 250 Watt | 150 Watt |
Sky 500 has an age advantage of 9 months, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, and 66.7% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and Radeon Sky 500. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is a desktop card while Radeon Sky 500 is a workstation one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
