Iris Graphics 540 vs Radeon HD 7970

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Iris Graphics 540 and Radeon HD 7970, 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 Iris Graphics 540 stacks up against Radeon HD 7970, check out specs charts below.

Iris Graphics 540 is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Iris Graphics 540 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 Iris Graphics 540 here:

Main Specs

  Iris Graphics 540 Radeon HD 7970
Power consumption (TDP) 15 Watt 300 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x1 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type eDRAM GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 64 MB 3 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7970 has 1900% more power consumption, than Iris Graphics 540.
  • Iris Graphics 540 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x1, and Radeon HD 7970 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Iris Graphics 540 has 61 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Iris Graphics 540 is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7970 - in Desktops.
  • Iris Graphics 540 is build with Gen. 9 Skylake architecture, and Radeon HD 7970 - with GCN.
  • Iris Graphics 540 is manufactured by 14 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 7970 - by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 35−40
ultra / 1080p 5−6 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 20−22 60−65
medium / 1080p 10−12 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 272% more, than Iris Graphics 540.

Full Specs

  Iris Graphics 540 Radeon HD 7970
Architecture Gen. 9 Skylake GCN
Code name Skylake GT3e Tahiti XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 September 2015 22 December 2011
Pipelines 48 2048
Core clock speed 300 MHz
Boost Clock 1050 MHz 925 MHz
Transistor count 189 million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 14 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 50.40 118.4
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops
Length 274 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth 264 GB/s
Shared memory + -
DirectX 12 (12_1)
Shader Model 6.4 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 2.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1.97
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 485 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
Quick Sync +
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