FirePro W7170M vs Radeon HD 6970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between FirePro W7170M 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 FirePro W7170M stacks up against Radeon HD 6970M, check out specs charts below.

FirePro W7170M and Radeon HD 6970M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: FirePro W7170M and Radeon HD 6970M are only used in laptop graphics. They have 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 FirePro W7170M or Radeon HD 6970M here:

Main Specs

  FirePro W7170M Radeon HD 6970M
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 75 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors None None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • FirePro W7170M has 33% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • FirePro W7170M is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon HD 6970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • FirePro W7170M has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • FirePro W7170M is used in Mobile workstations, and Radeon HD 6970M - in Laptops.
  • FirePro W7170M is build with GCN 3 architecture, and Radeon HD 6970M - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of FirePro W7170M is 43 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • FirePro W7170M is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 6970M - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of FirePro W7170M is 4100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 20−22 10−12
ultra / 1080p 12−14 6−7
QHD / 1440p 6−7 1−2
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 35−40 24−27
medium / 1080p 24−27 14−16
The average gaming FPS of FirePro W7170M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 81% more, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Full Specs

  FirePro W7170M Radeon HD 6970M
Architecture GCN 3 Terascale 2
Code name Tonga Blackcomb XT
Type Mobile workstation Laptop
Release date 2 October 2015 6 January 2011
Pipelines 2048 960
Core clock speed 723 MHz 680 MHz
Transistor count 5,000 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 92.54 32.64
Floating-point performance 2,961 gflops 1,305.6 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 5000 MHz 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 160.0 GB/s 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (12_0) 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 6.3 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 large
Eyefinity +
AppAcceleration +
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