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AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire

The AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire (or sometimes called the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 7970 X2) is a combination of two high-end graphics card for big and heavy laptops. Usually, each single card renders a single frame. Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).

The HD 7970M is based on the desktop HD 7870 Pitcairn chip with 1280 1D shaders and 80 texture units. The GCN (graphics core next) architecture supports DirectX11 and OpenGL 4.2. More information on the features of the single 7970M can be found on this page.

The Performance of the two HD 7970M in Crossfire mode is clearly above the GeForce GTX 580M SLI aka. 675M SLI and almost on par with the GeForce GTX 680M SLI. Modern and demanding games like Battlefield 3 are therefore playable in high resolution, max. settings and antialiasing.

The power consumption of the CF combination is very high (2x 100 Watt) and therefore the graphics cards are only suited for very large desktop replacement laptops.

ManufacturerAMD
Radeon HD 7900M Series

Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire 2560@850MHz

Radeon HD 7970M 1280@850MHz

Radeon HD 7950M 1280@700MHz

CodenameWimbledon XT
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines2560 - unified
Core Speed *850 MHz
Shader Speed *850 MHz
Memory Speed *1200 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11.1, Shader 5.0
Current Consumption200 Watt
technology28 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement01.05.2012
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 9976     avg: 10179 (98%)     max: 10382 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 11109     avg: 11119 (100%)     max: 11129 points
...
Radeon HD 7970 -30%
GeForce GTX 660 Ti -24%
GeForce GTX 590 -18%
Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
...
0%
100%
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 30783     avg: 31553.7 (86%)     max: 32751 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 34491     avg: 35208.5 (95%)     max: 35926 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 25798     avg: 27647 (94%)     max: 29496 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 36878     avg: 36878 (100%)     max: 36878 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 150623     avg: 150623 (100%)     max: 150623 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 151.3     avg: 151.3 (100%)     max: 151.3 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 23817     avg: 23817 (91%)     max: 23817 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 83.35     avg: 83.4 (95%)     max: 83.35 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 7660     avg: 7660 (71%)     max: 7660 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.9     avg: 7.9 (100%)     max: 7.9 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.9     avg: 7.9 (100%)     max: 7.9 points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Max Payne 3
Max Payne 3 (2012)
low:
85.1  fps      Compare
med.:
87.1  fps      Compare
high:
86.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
84.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Dirt Showdown
med.:
92.5  fps      Compare
high:
87.5  fps      Compare
ultra:
84.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Diablo III
Diablo III (2012)
med.:
242.7  fps      Compare
high:
237.5  fps      Compare
ultra:
194.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen 2: Dark Waters
med.:
103.9  fps      Compare
high:
80.6  fps      Compare
ultra:
43.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mass Effect 3
high:
59.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
59.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Alan Wake
Alan Wake (2012)
med.:
70.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
40.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Anno 2070
Anno 2070 (2011)
med.:
161.5  fps      Compare
high:
102  fps      Compare
ultra:
52.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
med.:
84.7  fps      Compare
high:
75.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
64.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
CoD: Modern Warfare 3
med.:
188.1  fps      Compare
high:
187.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
157.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Battlefield 3
med.:
141.2  fps      Compare
high:
131  fps      Compare
ultra:
67.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Batman: Arkham City
med.:
165  fps      Compare
high:
97  fps      Compare
ultra:
61  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Fifa 12
Fifa 12 (2011)
med.:
393.5  fps      Compare
high:
347.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
342.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
F1 2011
F1 2011 (2011)
med.:
90  fps      Compare
high:
77  fps      Compare
ultra:
67  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Deus Ex Human Revolution
high:
205.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
147.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Dirt 3 (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Crysis 2
Crysis 2 (2011)
med.:
100.2  fps      Compare
high:
100.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
95.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Total War: Shogun 2 (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
StarCraft 2
StarCraft 2 (2010)
med.:
137.3  fps      Compare
high:
136.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
119.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Just Cause 2 (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 (2010)
med.:
145.4  fps      Compare
high:
132.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
54.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...

For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List

Notebook reviews with AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire graphics card

Alienware M18x R2: Intel Core i7 3920XM, 18.4", 5.6 kg
  Review » Review Alienware M18x R2 Notebook

  External Review » Alienware M18x R2

» Comparison of GPUs
Detailled list of all laptop GPUs with a short description. Classified and sorted by performance.

» Benchmark List
Sortable and restrainable list of all GPUs with benchmarks (e.g. 3DMarks).

» Notebook Gaming List
Which game can be played with my graphics card.

Class 1
GeForce GTX 590
Radeon HD 7970
GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Radeon HD 7870
GeForce GTX 580
Radeon HD 6970
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 480
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Radeon HD 6870
Radeon HD 5850
Radeon HD 7770
Radeon HD 7770
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 5770
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Class 2
GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 4850
Class 3
Radeon HD 5670
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GT 430
Radeon HD 5570
GeForce GT 220
Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
Class 4
Class 5
Radeon HD 4350
GeForce G 107M *
Chrome9HD *
PowerVR SGX554MP4 *
Mali-T604 *
Class 6
PowerVR SGX543MP4 *
Adreno 320 *
PowerVR SGX543MP3 *
PowerVR SGX543MP2 *
PowerVR SGX545
PowerVR SGX544 *
Adreno 305 *
Adreno 225 *
Vivante GC4000 *
Mali-400 MP4 *
VideoCore-IV *
Adreno 220 *
Vivante GC1000+ Dual-Core
Mali-400 MP2 *
PowerVR SGX540 *
Adreno 205 *
Adreno 203 *
GC800 *
PowerVR SGX535
PowerVR SGX531
PowerVR SGX530
Adreno 200 *
Mali-200 *
unknown *

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > FAQ / Tips / Technics > Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards > AMD Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire
Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2013-01-17)