GeForce GTX 590 vs Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire

In this comparison between GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people GeForce GTX 590 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire 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 6970M Crossfire here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
Power consumption (TDP) 365 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors Two 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3072 MB (1536 MB per GPU) 2x2 GB
Display Connectors 3x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
  Check Price Check Price
  • GeForce GTX 590 has 3070 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 590 is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 590 is 535 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.
  • GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of GeForce GTX 590 is 807 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 21−24
ultra / 1080p 10−11 12−14
QHD / 1440p 4−5 7−8
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 35−40 40−45
medium / 1080p 21−24 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 22% more, than GeForce GTX 590.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 590 Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
Architecture Fermi Terascale 2
Code name GF110 Blackcomb XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 24 March 2011 6 January 2011
Pipelines 1024 1920
Core clock speed 1215 MHz 680 MHz
Transistor count 3,000 million 2x1700 Million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 77.7 billion/sec
Floating-point performance 2x 1,244.2 gflops
Length 11" (280 mm) (27.9 cm)
Memory bus width 768-bit (384-bit per GPU) 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1707 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 327.7 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_0) DirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Shader Model 5.1
OpenGL 4.2
OpenCL 1.1
Vulkan N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1024
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large
  Check Price Check Price