GeForce RTX 5090 vs Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

Place in the ranking	344	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	59
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	11.16
Power efficiency	5.53	12.43
Architecture	GCN (2012−2015)	Blackwell 2.0 (2025)
GPU code name	Wimbledon XT	GB202
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 May 2012 (12 years ago)	30 January 2025 (recently)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$1,999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

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	2560	21760
Core clock speed	850 MHz	2017 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2407 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	92,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	575 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	1,637
Floating-point processing power	no data	104.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	176
TMUs	no data	680
Tensor Cores	no data	680
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	170

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	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 5.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 16-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	GDDR7
Maximum RAM amount	no data	32 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	512 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	1.79 TB/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 Connectors	no data	1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1b
HDMI	-	+

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.8
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	-	1.4
CUDA	-	10.1

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	132 −544%	850−900 +544%
Full HD	101 −105%	207 +105%
1440p	27−30 −581%	184 +581%
4K	21−24 −571%	141 +571%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	9.66
1440p	no data	10.86
4K	no data	14.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	27−30 −661%	210−220 +661%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −525%	200−210 +525%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	50−55 −125%	110−120 +125%
Counter-Strike 2	27−30 −661%	210−220 +661%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −525%	200−210 +525%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −506%	400−450 +506%
Forza Horizon 5	40−45 −660%	300−350 +660%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −350%	190−200 +350%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −300%	150−160 +300%
Valorant	65−70 −1171%	800−850 +1171%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	50−55 −125%	110−120 +125%
Counter-Strike 2	27−30 −661%	210−220 +661%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −525%	200−210 +525%
Dota 2	55−60 −202%	170−180 +202%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −179%	159 +179%
Fortnite	85−90 −250%	300−350 +250%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −506%	400−450 +506%
Forza Horizon 5	40−45 −660%	300−350 +660%
Grand Theft Auto V	55−60 −514%	350−400 +514%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −350%	190−200 +350%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	110−120 −88.6%	210−220 +88.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −300%	150−160 +300%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	45−50 −255%	170−180 +255%
Valorant	65−70 −1171%	800−850 +1171%
World of Tanks	200−210 −38.1%	270−280 +38.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	50−55 −125%	110−120 +125%
Counter-Strike 2	27−30 −621%	202 +621%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −525%	200−210 +525%
Dota 2	55−60 −503%	350−400 +503%
Far Cry 5	55−60 −268%	210−220 +268%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −506%	400−450 +506%
Forza Horizon 5	40−45 −660%	300−350 +660%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	110−120 −88.6%	210−220 +88.6%
Valorant	65−70 −1171%	800−850 +1171%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	20−22 −815%	183 +815%
Dota 2	24−27 −604%	160−170 +604%
Grand Theft Auto V	24−27 −525%	150−160 +525%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	150−160 −529%	950−1000 +529%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −564%	90−95 +564%
World of Tanks	110−120 −365%	500−550 +365%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −172%	85−90 +172%
Cyberpunk 2077	12−14 −525%	75−80 +525%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −300%	160−170 +300%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −525%	250−260 +525%
Forza Horizon 5	24−27 −856%	230−240 +856%
Metro Exodus	35−40 −380%	160−170 +380%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 −536%	140−150 +536%
Valorant	40−45 −1330%	550−600 +1330%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	6−7 −2800%	174 +2800%
Dota 2	27−30 −568%	180−190 +568%
Grand Theft Auto V	27−30 −543%	180−190 +543%
Metro Exodus	10−12 −1418%	167 +1418%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50 −345%	200−210 +345%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−11 −540%	60−65 +540%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	27−30 −530%	170−180 +530%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	14−16 −507%	90−95 +507%
Counter-Strike 2	6−7 −817%	55 +817%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −500%	30−33 +500%
Dota 2	27−30 −543%	180−190 +543%
Far Cry 5	20−22 −425%	100−110 +425%
Fortnite	18−20 −433%	95−100 +433%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −509%	140−150 +509%
Forza Horizon 5	12−14 −1242%	160−170 +1242%
Valorant	18−20 −1922%	350−400 +1922%

This is how HD 7970M Crossfire and RTX 5090 compete in popular games:

RTX 5090 is 544% faster in 900p
RTX 5090 is 105% faster in 1080p
RTX 5090 is 581% faster in 1440p
RTX 5090 is 571% faster in 4K

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

in Counter-Strike 2, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 5090 is 2800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RTX 5090 surpassed HD 7970M Crossfire in all 45 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	15.49	100.00
Recency	1 May 2012	30 January 2025
Chip lithography	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	575 Watt

HD 7970M Crossfire has 187.5% lower power consumption.

RTX 5090, on the other hand, has a 545.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 5090 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire in performance tests.

Be aware that Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 5090 is a desktop one.

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