GeForce 8800 GTX vs Radeon HD 7970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce 8800 GTX and Radeon HD 7970M, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce 8800 GTX stacks up against Radeon HD 7970M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7970M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon HD 7970M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce 8800 GTX Radeon HD 7970M
Power consumption (TDP) 155 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 1.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin None
Memory type GDDR3 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 768 MB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video No outputs
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  • GeForce 8800 GTX has 55% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX is connected by PCIe 1.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX has 766 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7970M - in Laptops.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX is build with Tesla architecture, and Radeon HD 7970M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 274 MHz higher, than GeForce 8800 GTX.
  • GeForce 8800 GTX is manufactured by 90 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 3900 MHz higher, than GeForce 8800 GTX.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 18−20
ultra / 1080p 10−12
QHD / 1440p 0−1 5−6
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 1−2 35−40
medium / 1080p 0−1 21−24
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 3600% more, than GeForce 8800 GTX.

Full Specs

  GeForce 8800 GTX Radeon HD 7970M
Architecture Tesla GCN
Code name G80 Wimbledon XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 8 November 2006 1 May 2012
Pipelines 128 1280
Core clock speed 576 MHz 850 MHz
Transistor count 681 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 90 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 36.8 billion/sec 68.00
Floating-point performance 345.6 gflops 2,176 gflops
Length 270 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 86.4 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.1 (10_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 4.0 5.1
OpenGL 3.3 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 575
SLI options +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 254 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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