Radeon HD 7950 vs Radeon HD 8970M

In this comparison between Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 8970M you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 7950 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 8970M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 8970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 8970M 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 8970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7950 Radeon HD 8970M
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 2x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7950 has 100% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 8970M.
  • Both video cards are using PCIe 3.0 x16 interface connection to a motherboard.
  • Radeon HD 8970M has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7950.
  • Radeon HD 7950 is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 8970M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7950 is build with GCN 1.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 8970M - with GCN.
  • Radeon HD 7950 and Radeon HD 8970M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 3550 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7950.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 20−22
ultra / 1080p 21−24 12−14
QHD / 1440p 16−18 6−7
4K / 2160p 10−11 5−6
low / 720p 60−65 35−40
medium / 1080p 40−45 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7950 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 77% more, than Radeon HD 8970M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7950 Radeon HD 8970M
Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN
Code name Tahiti Neptune
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 31 January 2012 15 May 2013
Pipelines 1792 1280
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Boost Clock 1250 MHz 900 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 89.60 72.00
Floating-point performance 2,867 gflops 2,304 gflops
Length 267 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1250 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 240 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.56 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 381 Mh/s 273 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
PowerTune +
ZeroCore +
Design reference
Number of Eyefinity displays 6
CrossFire +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.78 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 13.86 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 250 Sol/s
Compute units 28
AppAcceleration +
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