GeForce GTX 480 vs Radeon HD 6970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 480 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 GeForce GTX 480 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

  GeForce GTX 480 Radeon HD 6970M
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 75 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 6-pin & 8-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1536 MB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-HDMI No outputs
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  • GeForce GTX 480 has 233% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • GeForce GTX 480 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 6970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • GeForce GTX 480 has 1534 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • GeForce GTX 480 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 6970M - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 480 is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 6970M - with Terascale 2.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 480 is 20 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • GeForce GTX 480 and Radeon HD 6970M are manufactured by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of GeForce GTX 480 is 948 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 21−24 10−12
ultra / 1080p 12−14 6−7
QHD / 1440p 6−7 1−2
4K / 2160p 5−6
low / 720p 40−45 24−27
medium / 1080p 24−27 14−16
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 480 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 100% more, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 480 Radeon HD 6970M
Architecture Fermi Terascale 2
Code name GF100 Blackcomb XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 7 December 2010 6 January 2011
Pipelines 480 960
Core clock speed 700 MHz 680 MHz
Transistor count 3,100 million 1,700 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 42 billion/sec 32.64
Floating-point performance 1,345.0 gflops 1,305.6 gflops
Length 10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)
Memory bus width 384 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1848 MHz (3696 data rate) 900 MHz
Memory bandwidth 177.4 GB/s 115.2 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.1 5.0
OpenGL 4.2 4.4
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A N/A
CUDA +
CUDA cores 480
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
HDCP +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 117 Mh/s 118 Mh/s
Laptop size large
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