Radeon HD 6990 vs Radeon HD 7870M

When choosing between Radeon HD 6990 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 6990 and Radeon HD 7870M.

Radeon HD 7870M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7870M 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 7870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6990 Radeon HD 7870M
Power consumption (TDP) 375 Watt 45 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6990 has 733% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7870M.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 7870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6990 and Radeon HD 7870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 7870M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is build with TeraScale 3 architecture, and Radeon HD 7870M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 6990 is 30 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870M.
  • Radeon HD 6990 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7870M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 6990 is 1000 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 14−16 6−7
ultra / 1080p 9−10 4−5
QHD / 1440p 3−4 0−1
low / 720p 30−35 16−18
medium / 1080p 18−20 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 6990 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 111% more, than Radeon HD 7870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6990 Radeon HD 7870M
Architecture TeraScale 3 GCN
Code name Antilles Heathrow XT
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 8 March 2011 24 April 2012
Pipelines 1536 640
Core clock speed 830 MHz 800 MHz
Transistor count 2,640 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 79.68 32.00
Floating-point performance 2x 2,549.8 gflops 1,024 gflops
Length 295 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 5000 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 160.0 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) 265 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 24 Mh/s
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