Radeon HD 7970 vs Radeon R9 M485X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon R9 M485X, 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 7970 stacks up against Radeon R9 M485X, check out specs charts below.

Radeon R9 M485X is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon R9 M485X 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 R9 M485X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon R9 M485X
Power consumption (TDP) 300 Watt 250 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 MXM-B (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 8 GB MB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7970 has 20% more power consumption, than Radeon R9 M485X.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon R9 M485X uses MXM-B (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon R9 M485X has 5 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R9 M485X - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon R9 M485X - with GCN 3.
  • Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon R9 M485X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 M485X is 3625 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 24−27
ultra / 1080p 21−24 14−16
QHD / 1440p 16−18 10−11
4K / 2160p 10−11 6−7
low / 720p 60−65 45−50
medium / 1080p 40−45 30−35
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 45% more, than Radeon R9 M485X.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon R9 M485X
Architecture GCN GCN 3
Code name Tahiti XT Amethyst
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 22 December 2011 14 May 2016
Pipelines 2048 2048
Core clock speed 723 MHz
Boost Clock 925 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 118.4 92.54
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops 2,961 gflops
Length 274 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz 5000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 264 GB/s 160.0 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 5.1 6.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 485 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
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