Radeon HD 6970M vs Radeon HD 7870M

When choosing between Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon HD 7870M, it is worth examining the specifications of the models in detail. Do they meet the recommended requirements of modern games and software? Storage capacity, form factor, TDP, available ports, warranty and manufacturer support are all important. For example, the size of a PC case can limit the maximum thickness and length of the card. Often, instead of the factory overclocked card and RGB backlight, it is better to choose a reference model with a more efficient GPU. And make sure that your current power supply unit has the correct connection pins (using adapters is not recommended). This GPUs compare tool is meant to help you to choose the best graphics card for your build. Let's find out the difference between Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon HD 7870M.

Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon HD 7870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon HD 7870M 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 Radeon HD 6970M or Radeon HD 7870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6970M Radeon HD 7870M
Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 45 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6970M has 66% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870M.
  • Radeon HD 6970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 7870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon HD 7870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6970M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 120 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.
  • Radeon HD 6970M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 3100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 6−7
ultra / 1080p 6−7 4−5
QHD / 1440p 1−2 0−1
low / 720p 24−27 16−18
medium / 1080p 14−16 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 55% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6970M Radeon HD 7870M
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
Code name Blackcomb XT Heathrow XT
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 24 April 2012
Pipelines 960 640
Core clock speed 680 MHz 800 MHz
Transistor count 1,700 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 32.64 32.00
Floating-point performance 1,305.6 gflops 1,024 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 64 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 118 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
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