GeForce GTX 680M SLI vs Radeon HD 7870M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 680M SLI and Radeon HD 7870M, 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 680M SLI stacks up against Radeon HD 7870M, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 680M SLI and Radeon HD 7870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: GeForce GTX 680M SLI 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 GeForce GTX 680M SLI or Radeon HD 7870M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 680M SLI Radeon HD 7870M
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2x 4 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs
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  • GeForce GTX 680M SLI and Radeon HD 7870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 680M SLI is build with Kepler architecture, and Radeon HD 7870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 80 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 680M SLI.
  • GeForce GTX 680M SLI and Radeon HD 7870M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7870M is 400 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 680M SLI.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 6−7
ultra / 1080p 21−24 4−5
QHD / 1440p 16−18 0−1
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 60−65 16−18
medium / 1080p 40−45 8−9
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 680M SLI in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 355% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 680M SLI Radeon HD 7870M
Architecture Kepler GCN
Code name N13E-GTX Heathrow XT
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 4 June 2012 24 April 2012
Pipelines 2688 640
Core clock speed 720 MHz 800 MHz
Transistor count 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 32.00
Floating-point performance 1,024 gflops
Memory bus width 2x 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 3600 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 64 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
CUDA +
SLI options +
Laptop size large large
Optimus +
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