Radeon 550X vs Radeon HD 6970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon 550X and Radeon HD 6970M, 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 Radeon 550X stacks up against Radeon HD 6970M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 6970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6970M 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 here:

Main Specs

  Radeon 550X Radeon HD 6970M
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 75 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors None None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6970M has 50% more power consumption, than Radeon 550X.
  • Radeon 550X is connected by PCIe 3.0 x8, and Radeon HD 6970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon 550X and Radeon HD 6970M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon 550X is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6970M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon 550X is build with GCN 4.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 6970M - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon 550X is 402 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • Radeon 550X is manufactured by 14 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 6970M - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon 550X is 6100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 7−8 10−12
ultra / 1080p 4−5 6−7
QHD / 1440p 0−1 1−2
low / 720p 16−18 24−27
medium / 1080p 9−10 14−16
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 55% more, than Radeon 550X.

Full Specs

  Radeon 550X Radeon HD 6970M
Architecture GCN 4.0 Terascale 2
Code name Lexa Blackcomb XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 27 March 2019 6 January 2011
Pipelines 512 960
Core clock speed 1082 MHz 680 MHz
Boost Clock 1218 MHz
Transistor count 2,200 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 14 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 38.98 32.64
Floating-point performance 1,305.6 gflops
Length 145 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 7000 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 112.0 GB/s 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0) 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 6.4 5.0
OpenGL 4.6 4.4
OpenCL 2.0 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 N/A
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 118 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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