Radeon HD 7970 vs Radeon RX 460

In this comparison between Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon RX 460 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 7970 will be the best choice, for others Radeon RX 460 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon RX 460
Power consumption (TDP) 300 Watt 75 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon HD 7970 has 300% more power consumption, than Radeon RX 460.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon RX 460 uses PCIe 3.0 x8 interface.
  • Radeon RX 460 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Both cards are used in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon RX 460 - with Polaris.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon RX 460 - by 14 nm process technology.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is 104 mm longer, than Radeon RX 460.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon RX 460 is 5625 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 21−24
ultra / 1080p 21−24 12−14
QHD / 1440p 16−18 7−8
4K / 2160p 10−11 5−6
low / 720p 60−65 40−45
medium / 1080p 40−45 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 68% more, than Radeon RX 460.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon RX 460
Architecture GCN Polaris
Code name Tahiti XT Polaris 11 / Baffin XT
Type Desktop Desktop
Release date 22 December 2011 8 August 2016
Pipelines 2048 896
Core clock speed 1090 MHz
Boost Clock 925 MHz 1200 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 3,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 14 nm
Texture fill rate 118.4 67.20
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops 2,150 gflops
Length 274 mm 170 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz 7000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 264 GB/s 112.0 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 5.1 6.4
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 240 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
  Check Price Check Price