Radeon HD 6970 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 7870 XT. Here you can take a closer look at graphics cards specs, such as core clock speed, memory type and size, display connectors, etc. The price, overall benchmark and gaming performances are usually defining factors when it comes to choosing between Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 7870 XT. Make sure that the graphics card has compatible dimensions and will properly fit in your new or current computer case. Also these graphics cards may have different system power recommendations, so take that into consideration and upgrade your PSU if necessary.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6970 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Power consumption (TDP) 550 Watt 185 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin 2x 6-pin
Memory type DDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 6970 has 197% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870 XT.
  • Radeon HD 6970 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7870 XT uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 7870 XT have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6970 is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 6970 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870 XT - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Both graphics cards are the same length of 267 mm.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870 XT is 4625 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 14−16 35−40
ultra / 1080p 9−10 21−24
QHD / 1440p 3−4 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 30−35 60−65
medium / 1080p 18−20 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7870 XT in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 140% more, than Radeon HD 6970.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6970 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name Cayman Tahiti
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 14 December 2010 19 November 2012
Pipelines 1536 1536
Core clock speed 925 MHz
Boost Clock 880 MHz 975 MHz
Transistor count 2,640 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 84.48 93.60
Floating-point performance 2,703.4 gflops 2,995 gflops
Length 267 mm 267 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 192.0 GB/s
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
Bus support PCIe 2.0 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 273 Mh/s 346 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 14.5 Mh/s
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