Radeon RX 6800 XT vs HD 7970M Crossfire

Place in the ranking	337	28
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	50.58
Power efficiency	5.49	14.84
Architecture	GCN (2012−2015)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Wimbledon XT	Navi 21
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	1 May 2012 (12 years ago)	28 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$649

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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	4608
Core clock speed	850 MHz	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2250 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	648.0
Floating-point processing power	no data	20.74 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	128
TMUs	no data	288
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	72

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 4.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	2x 8-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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	no data	16 GB
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	512.0 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 Connectors	no data	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	-	+

API 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	6.5
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	2.1
Vulkan	-	1.2

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 7970M Crossfire 16.02

RX 6800 XT 64.95
+305%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

HD 7970M Crossfire 11119

RX 6800 XT 52046
+368%

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 7970M Crossfire 31127

RX 6800 XT 96516
+210%

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 −279%	500−550 +279%
Full HD	101 −105%	207 +105%
1440p	35−40 −309%	143 +309%
4K	21−24 −343%	93 +343%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	3.14
1440p	no data	4.54
4K	no data	6.98

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

24−27

−400%

120−130
+400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −272%	130−140 +272%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −508%	158 +508%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −289%	200−210 +289%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −263%	110−120 +263%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −203%	110−120 +203%
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45 −257%	150−160 +257%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −126%	230−240 +126%
Hitman 3	30−35 −326%	132 +326%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −196%	240−250 +196%
Metro Exodus	55−60 −162%	144 +162%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 −177%	122 +177%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −406%	260−270 +406%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −281%	309 +281%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −272%	130−140 +272%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −419%	135 +419%
Battlefield 5	50−55 −289%	200−210 +289%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −263%	110−120 +263%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −203%	110−120 +203%
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45 −257%	150−160 +257%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −126%	230−240 +126%
Hitman 3	30−35 −339%	136 +339%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −196%	240−250 +196%
Metro Exodus	55−60 −162%	144 +162%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45 −170%	110−120 +170%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −570%	355 +570%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	35−40 −261%	130−140 +261%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −281%	309 +281%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	35−40 −272%	130−140 +272%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27 −354%	118 +354%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35 −263%	110−120 +263%
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27 −400%	120−130 +400%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −203%	110−120 +203%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −126%	230−240 +126%
Hitman 3	30−35 −294%	122 +294%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −244%	279 +244%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55 −470%	302 +470%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	35−40 −321%	160 +321%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −38.3%	112 +38.3%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45

−173%

120
+173%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −381%	140−150 +381%
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27 −308%	100−110 +308%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16−18 −369%	75−80 +369%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14 −654%	98 +654%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	16−18 −347%	75−80 +347%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −633%	65−70 +633%
Far Cry 5	18−20 −300%	75−80 +300%
Forza Horizon 4	85−90 −215%	270−280 +215%
Hitman 3	18−20 −500%	114 +500%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −552%	215 +552%
Metro Exodus	27−30 −286%	112 +286%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−33 −640%	222 +640%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −571%	110−120 +571%
Watch Dogs: Legion	95−100 −220%	314 +220%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

24−27

−346%

116
+346%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	16−18 −388%	75−80 +388%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 −433%	60−65 +433%
Hitman 3	12−14 −367%	55−60 +367%
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85 −177%	220−230 +177%
Metro Exodus	16−18 −688%	126 +688%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −633%	110 +633%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 −478%	50−55 +478%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9 −713%	65 +713%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −488%	45−50 +488%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −933%	30−35 +933%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −400%	45−50 +400%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 −382%	100−110 +382%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 −731%	133 +731%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 −717%	49 +717%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

−443%

76
+443%

This is how HD 7970M Crossfire and RX 6800 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6800 XT is 279% faster in 900p
RX 6800 XT is 105% faster in 1080p
RX 6800 XT is 309% faster in 1440p
RX 6800 XT is 343% faster in 4K

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

in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 6800 XT is 933% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RX 6800 XT surpassed HD 7970M Crossfire in all 72 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	16.02	64.95
Recency	1 May 2012	28 October 2020
Chip lithography	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	200 Watt	300 Watt

HD 7970M Crossfire has 50% lower power consumption.

RX 6800 XT, on the other hand, has a 305.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT 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 Radeon RX 6800 XT is a desktop one.

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