Radeon HD 7790 vs Radeon HD 7970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7790 and Radeon HD 7970M, 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 7790 stacks up against Radeon HD 7970M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7970M 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 7970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7790 Radeon HD 7970M
Power consumption (TDP) 85 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7970M has 17% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7790.
  • Radeon HD 7790 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7970M uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon HD 7970M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7790.
  • Radeon HD 7790 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7970M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7790 is build with GCN 2.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 7970M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7790 is 150 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • Radeon HD 7790 and Radeon HD 7970M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7790 is 1200 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 16−18 18−20
ultra / 1080p 9−10 10−12
QHD / 1440p 4−5 5−6
4K / 2160p 4−5 4−5
low / 720p 30−35 35−40
medium / 1080p 20−22 21−24
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 14% more, than Radeon HD 7790.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7790 Radeon HD 7970M
Architecture GCN 2.0 GCN
Code name Bonaire Wimbledon XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 22 March 2013 1 May 2012
Pipelines 896 1280
Core clock speed 1000 MHz 850 MHz
Transistor count 2,080 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 56.00 68.00
Floating-point performance 1,792 gflops 2,176 gflops
Length 183 mm
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 6000 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 96 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (12_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 6.3 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.0 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 218 Mh/s 254 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 5.2 Mh/s
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