Iris Xe MAX Graphics vs Radeon HD 7970

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Iris Xe MAX Graphics and Radeon HD 7970, 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 Iris Xe MAX Graphics stacks up against Radeon HD 7970, check out specs charts below.

Iris Xe MAX Graphics is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Iris Xe MAX Graphics 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 Iris Xe MAX Graphics here:

Main Specs

  Iris Xe MAX Graphics Radeon HD 7970
Power consumption (TDP) 300 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type LPDDR4x GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 MB 3 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Iris Xe MAX Graphics has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Iris Xe MAX Graphics is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7970 - in Desktops.
  • Iris Xe MAX Graphics is build with Gen. 12 Xe architecture, and Radeon HD 7970 - with GCN.
  • Iris Xe MAX Graphics is manufactured by 10 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Iris Xe MAX Graphics is 2891 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 35−40
ultra / 1080p 21−24 21−24
QHD / 1440p 16−18 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11 10−11
low / 720p 60−65 60−65
medium / 1080p 40−45 40−45
Iris Xe MAX Graphics and Radeon HD 7970 have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  Iris Xe MAX Graphics Radeon HD 7970
Architecture Gen. 12 Xe GCN
Code name iDG1LPDEV Tahiti XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 31 October 2020 22 December 2011
Pipelines 96 2048
Boost Clock 1650 MHz 925 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 10 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 118.4
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops
Length 274 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 4266 MHz 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 264 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX DirectX 12.1
Shader Model 5.1
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 1.2
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 485 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
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