Radeon HD 7970M vs Radeon R9 270

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 270, 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 7970M stacks up against Radeon R9 270, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7970M 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 7970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 270
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 150 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1 x 6-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 270 has 50% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 270 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 270 have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 270 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon R9 270 - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 270 are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 18−20 21−24
ultra / 1080p 10−12 12−14
QHD / 1440p 5−6 7−8
4K / 2160p 4−5 5−6
low / 720p 35−40 40−45
medium / 1080p 21−24 27−30
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 270 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 18% more, than Radeon HD 7970M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 270
Architecture GCN GCN 1.0
Code name Wimbledon XT Curacao
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 May 2012 13 November 2013
Pipelines 1280 1280
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Boost Clock 925 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 74.00
Floating-point performance 2,176 gflops 2,368 gflops
Length 210 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 179.2 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 +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 254 Mh/s 293 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 16 Mh/s
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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