FirePro M8900 vs Radeon HD 8970M
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 444 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 7.25 | no data |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2011−2020) | TeraScale 2 (2009−2015) |
| GPU code name | Neptune | Blackcomb |
| Market segment | Laptop | Mobile workstation |
| Release date | 14 May 2013 (11 years ago) | 12 April 2011 (13 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 | 1280 | 960 |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 900 MHz | no data |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | 1,700 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 75 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 72.00 | 32.64 |
| Floating-point processing power | 2.304 TFLOPS | 1.306 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 |
| TMUs | 80 | 48 |
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 |
| Bus support | no data | n/a |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Form factor | no data | MXM-B |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | None |
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 | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1200 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 115 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 outputs | No outputs |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 11.2 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.0 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 14 May 2013 | 12 April 2011 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 40 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 100 Watt | 75 Watt |
HD 8970M has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.
FirePro M8900, on the other hand, has 33.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 8970M and FirePro M8900. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon HD 8970M is a notebook graphics card while FirePro M8900 is a mobile 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
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