Radeon HD 6970 vs R7 370

Place in the ranking	412	538
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	6.57	1.05
Power efficiency	7.32	2.03
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	TeraScale 3 (2010−2013)
GPU code name	Trinidad	Cayman
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	reference
Release date	18 June 2015 (9 years ago)	14 December 2010 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$149	$369

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R7 370 has 526% better value for money than HD 6970.

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	1024	1536
Boost clock speed	975 MHz	880 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	2,640 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	550 Watt
Texture fill rate	62.40	84.48
Floating-point processing power	1.997 TFLOPS	2.703 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	32
TMUs	64	96

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 3.0	PCIe 2.0 x16
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	152 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin	1x 6-pin + 1x 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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	975 MHz	1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth	179.2 GB/s	no data
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	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity	+	+
Number of Eyefinity displays	6	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

AppAcceleration	+	-
CrossFire	+	+
FreeSync	+	-
TrueAudio	+	-
VCE	+	-
DDMA audio	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	DirectX® 11
Shader Model	5.1	5.0
OpenGL	4.6	4.4
OpenCL	2.0	1.2
Vulkan	+	-
Mantle	+	-

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.

R7 370 11.70
+58.5%

HD 6970 7.38

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.

R7 370 4499
+58.6%

HD 6970 2836

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.

R7 370 5961
+71.8%

HD 6970 3470

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:

Full HD	47 +74.1%	27−30 −74.1%
1440p	57 +62.9%	35−40 −62.9%
4K	20 +66.7%	12−14 −66.7%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	3.17 +331%	13.67 −331%
1440p	2.61 +303%	10.54 −303%
4K	7.45 +313%	30.75 −313%

R7 370 has 331% lower cost per frame in 1080p
R7 370 has 303% lower cost per frame in 1440p
R7 370 has 313% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	21−24 +40%	14−16 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +64.3%	14−16 −64.3%
Elden Ring	30−35 +70%	20−22 −70%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40 +65.2%	21−24 −65.2%
Counter-Strike 2	21−24 +40%	14−16 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +64.3%	14−16 −64.3%
Forza Horizon 4	45−50 +56.7%	30−33 −56.7%
Metro Exodus	30−35 +68.4%	18−20 −68.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33 +42.9%	21−24 −42.9%
Valorant	35 +45.8%	24−27 −45.8%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40 +65.2%	21−24 −65.2%
Counter-Strike 2	21−24 +40%	14−16 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +64.3%	14−16 −64.3%
Dota 2	29 +11.5%	24−27 −11.5%
Elden Ring	30−35 +70%	20−22 −70%
Far Cry 5	45−50 +39.4%	30−35 −39.4%
Fortnite	65−70 +52.3%	40−45 −52.3%
Forza Horizon 4	45−50 +56.7%	30−33 −56.7%
Grand Theft Auto V	44 +69.2%	24−27 −69.2%
Metro Exodus	30−35 +68.4%	18−20 −68.4%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	55 −7.3%	55−60 +7.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33 +42.9%	21−24 −42.9%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	37 +60.9%	21−24 −60.9%
Valorant	45−50 +87.5%	24−27 −87.5%
World of Tanks	160−170 +43.4%	110−120 −43.4%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40 +65.2%	21−24 −65.2%
Counter-Strike 2	21−24 +40%	14−16 −40%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +64.3%	14−16 −64.3%
Dota 2	40−45 +61.5%	24−27 −61.5%
Far Cry 5	45−50 +39.4%	30−35 −39.4%
Forza Horizon 4	45−50 +56.7%	30−33 −56.7%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	27 −119%	55−60 +119%
Valorant	20 −20%	24−27 +20%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	14−16 +87.5%	8−9 −87.5%
Elden Ring	16−18 +88.9%	9−10 −88.9%
Grand Theft Auto V	16−18 +100%	8−9 −100%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	60−65 +64.1%	35−40 −64.1%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−11 +66.7%	6−7 −66.7%
World of Tanks	81 +52.8%	50−55 −52.8%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	21−24 +76.9%	12−14 −76.9%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 +10%	10−11 −10%
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Far Cry 5	24−27 +73.3%	14−16 −73.3%
Forza Horizon 4	27−30 +92.9%	14−16 −92.9%
Metro Exodus	24−27 +118%	10−12 −118%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +55.6%	9−10 −55.6%
Valorant	17 −11.8%	18−20 +11.8%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	6−7 +500%	1−2 −500%
Dota 2	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
Elden Ring	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Grand Theft Auto V	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
Metro Exodus	7−8 +133%	3−4 −133%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	37 +76.2%	21−24 −76.2%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
World of Tanks	45 +66.7%	27−30 −66.7%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	10−12 +83.3%	6−7 −83.3%
Counter-Strike 2	6−7 +500%	1−2 −500%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Dota 2	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
Far Cry 5	14−16 +55.6%	9−10 −55.6%
Fortnite	12−14 +85.7%	7−8 −85.7%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +87.5%	8−9 −87.5%
Valorant	12−14 +71.4%	7−8 −71.4%

This is how R7 370 and HD 6970 compete in popular games:

R7 370 is 74% faster in 1080p
R7 370 is 63% faster in 1440p
R7 370 is 67% 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 R7 370 is 500% faster.
in PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6970 is 119% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

R7 370 is ahead in 59 tests (94%)
HD 6970 is ahead in 4 tests (6%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	11.70	7.38
Recency	18 June 2015	14 December 2010
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	110 Watt	550 Watt

R7 370 has a 58.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 400% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R7 370 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6970 in performance tests.

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