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    Radeon HD 6970M vs Radeon R9 290X

    If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 6970M and Radeon R9 290X, 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 Radeon HD 6970M stacks up against Radeon R9 290X, check out specs charts below.
    Radeon HD 6970M Check Price
    Radeon R9 290X Check Price

    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:

    Radeon HD 6970M Laptops

    Main Specs

      Radeon HD 6970M Radeon R9 290X
    Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 250 Watt
    Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
    Supplementary power connectors None 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
    Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
    Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
    Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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    • Radeon R9 290X has 233% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 6970M.
    • Radeon HD 6970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
    • Radeon R9 290X has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970M.
    • Radeon HD 6970M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 290X - in Desktops.
    • Radeon HD 6970M is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 290X - with GCN.
    • Radeon HD 6970M is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 290X - by 28 nm process technology.
    • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 290X is 350 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M.

    Game benchmarks

    high / 1080p 10−12 35−40
    ultra / 1080p 6−7 24−27
    QHD / 1440p 1−2 18−20
    4K / 2160p − 10−11
    low / 720p 24−27 60−65
    medium / 1080p 14−16 45−50
    The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 290X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 245% more, than Radeon HD 6970M.

    Full Specs

      Radeon HD 6970M Radeon R9 290X
    Architecture Terascale 2 GCN
    Code name Blackcomb XT Hawaii XT
    Type Laptop Desktop
    Release date 6 January 2011 24 October 2013
    Pipelines 960 2816
    Core clock speed 680 MHz
    Boost Clock 947 MHz
    Transistor count 1,700 million 6,200 million
    Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
    Texture fill rate 32.64 176.0
    Floating-point performance 1,305.6 gflops 5,632 gflops
    Length 275 mm
    Memory bus width 256 Bit 512 Bit
    Memory clock speed 900 MHz 1250 MHz
    Memory bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 320 GB/s
    Shared memory - -
    DirectX 11.2 (11_0)
    Shader Model 5.0 6.3
    OpenGL 4.4 4.6
    OpenCL 1.2 2.0
    Vulkan N/A +
    Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.76 kh/s
    FreeSync +
    Bus support PCIe 3.0
    HDMI +
    Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 118 Mh/s 623 Mh/s
    Laptop size large
    Eyefinity +
    HD3D +
    TrueAudio +
    Design reference
    DisplayPort support +
    CrossFire +
    DDMA audio +
    Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
    Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 25.75 Mh/s
    Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 350 Sol/s
    AppAcceleration +
    LiquidVR +
    TressFX +
    UVD +
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