GeForce GTX 860M vs Radeon HD 6970

In this comparison between GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 6970 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 860M will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 6970 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

GeForce GTX 860M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GTX 860M 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 GeForce GTX 860M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 860M Radeon HD 6970
Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 550 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 DDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 6970 has 633% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 860M.
  • GeForce GTX 860M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 6970 uses PCIe 2.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 860M has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970.
  • GeForce GTX 860M is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 6970 - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 860M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 6970 - with Terascale 2.
  • GeForce GTX 860M is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 6970 - by 40 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 14−16
ultra / 1080p 10−11 9−10
QHD / 1440p 5−6 3−4
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 30−35 30−35
medium / 1080p 21−24 18−20
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 860M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 13% more, than Radeon HD 6970.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 860M Radeon HD 6970
Architecture Maxwell Terascale 2
Code name N15P-GX Cayman
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 12 March 2014 14 December 2010
Pipelines 640 1536
Core clock speed 797 MHz
Boost Clock 915 MHz 880 MHz
Transistor count 1,870 million 2,640 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 43.40 84.48
Floating-point performance 1,389 gflops 2,703.4 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 80.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.1 5.0
OpenGL 4.5 4.4
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.126
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1152 or 640
Bus support PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0 PCIe 2.0 x16
SLI options +
HDMI + +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 163 Mh/s 273 Mh/s
Laptop size medium sized
Standard memory configuration GDDR5
eDP 1.2 signal support Up to 3840x2160
LVDS signal support Up to 1920x1200
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support Up to 3840x2160
HDCP content protection +
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI +
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
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