Notebookcheck Logo

AMD Radeon HD 7970

AMD Radeon HD 7970

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is a high-end graphics card for desktop PCs It is based on the Tahiti core. It was the first GPU that was produced in 28nm and supports DirectX 11.1. The 7970 offers 2048 shader cores (1D) of the GCN architecture (first generation) and 128 texture units.

The performance of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is clearly better than the mobile Radeon HD 7970M (which is based on the Pitcairn with only 1280 shaders). Compared to the GeFore GTX 680, the 7970 is about 8% slower. Therefore, AMD later introduced a 7970 GHz Edition that was clocked at 1000 MHz and performed on the same level as the GeForce GTX 680.

Thanks to Eyefinity up to 6 monitors can be connected to the 7970. The integrated UVD Video-Decoder is able to decode H.264, VC-1 MPEG-2, MVC, MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX/Xvid) and Adobe Flash videos.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is rated with a TDP of 250 Watt.

CodenameTahiti XT
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines2048 - unified
Core Speed925 MHz
Memory Speed5500 MHz
Memory Bus Width384 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory3 GB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1, OpenGL 4.2
Power Consumption250 Watt
Transistor Count4.3 Billion
technology28 nm
FeaturesEyefinity, HD3D, CrossFire
Date of Announcement22.12.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/g...

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
16.6 pt (17%)
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
106667 Points (56%)
3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
29520 Points (32%)
133.4 -100%
...
AMD Radeon HD 6790
27695 -6%
27877 -6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
27984 -5%
28423 -4%
28651 -3%
28941 -2%
29052 -2%
29194 -1%
29417 0%
AMD Radeon HD 7970
29520
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
29589 0%
29690 1%
29851 1%
30166 2%
30606 4%
30785 4%
31017 5%
AMD Radeon HD 6970
31580 7%
32190 9%
...
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
86975 195%
0%
100%
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
23807 Points (33%)
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

F1 2013

F1 2013

2013
med. 1366x768
137  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
130  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
108  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Fifa 14

Fifa 14

2013
ultra 1920x1080
441.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
201.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
155.2  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
111.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
36  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1280x720
90.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
77.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
68.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
58.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
121.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
121.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
69.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
44.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
97.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
135.3  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
83  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
47.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Dota 2

Dota 2

2013
ultra 1920x1080
98.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
ultra 1920x1080
31.9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
GRID 2

GRID 2

2013
low 1024x768
206.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
141.7  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
130.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
84.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
115.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
110  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
77.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
46.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1280x720
199.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
170.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
150.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
64.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
SimCity

SimCity

2013
low 1024x768
136.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
100.6  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
77.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
57.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
high 1366x768
161  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
72.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Crysis 3

Crysis 3

2013
low 1024x768
96.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
84.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
59.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
28.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
394.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
289.3  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
234.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
155.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

2012
low 1024x768
111.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
102.6  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
76.6  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
35.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
med. 1366x768
56.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
54.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
39.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
65.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
61.8  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
56.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
43.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
238.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
223.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
146.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
104.9  fps    + Compare